The slang simp appeared to come out of nowhere in 2019–20. It’s popularly claimed that the internet slang simp is an acronym for “Suckers Idolizing Mediocre Pussy.” But, as usual, the story of simp isn’t so simple. The internet teen slang simp, as is true of many slang terms that go mainstream, appears to come directly from Black hip-hop slang—and it’s older than you may think.Hip-hop lyrics from the late 1980s and 1990s were already using simp as an insult for a men perceived as too subservient to a woman. For instance, on Ice-T’s 1987 “Our Most Requested Record [Long Version],” DJ Evil E raps: “Taking out all simps and suckers …” Urban Dictionary entries in the early 2000–2010s also use simp in this way, with some of them maintaining that simp is a blend of sissy and pimp.Then there’s simp as a short form of simpleton (a fool), which was first recorded all the way back in the early 1900s. The relationship between the historic and contemporary slang simp is unclear, but we can’t rule out connections—or at least associations—between the two terms. The slang simp spreads in the 2010s. In 2013, YouTube user DJ Akademics referred to a simp as an “overly emotional” man in a video titled “Drake is officially King Of Simps.” In 2019, simp further spread on social media, notably found as an insult for weak-willed men on Men Going Their Own Way subreddits. Simp gained much more mainstream attention starting in December 2019. That’s when TikTok user @pollo.boyy created a viral TikTok trend called “Simp Nation.” In this trend, people, usually young men, post short videos describing allegedly stereotypical behaviors of a simp, like comforting his girlfriend or buying her dinner and not getting repaid with sexual attention as a result.