Re: [Gimp-user] OT: Gimp name-picking (Was: Need help repairing image)

[Dotan Cohen <dotancohen gmail com>]

On Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 04:30, Patrick Horgan <phorgan1 yahoo com> wrote:
> > Patrick -> Patricius -> patrician ->Honourable Man
> Not quite right.  I don't believe that patrician has ever meant an
> honorable man.  Patrician is from the Middle-English patricion,
> derivative (via ancient French) of the plural of the latin patres which
> was what the Romans called senators.  They were considered the fathers
> of Rome, and the founding parents.  From this we got an association with
> nobility, i.e. patrician can mean a person of breeding and culture or an
> aristocrat.  It only sort of accidentally matches up with current
> meanings of honorable or noble, since aristocrats/nobility/political
> leaders now or in the past, are at times not very honorable or noble, eh?

Thank you for that insight!


> > Dotan -> A biblical valley near my home
> > Gimp - > A flat trimming of silk; A physically disabled person; A
> > sexual fetishist who likes to be dominated and who dresses in a
> > leather or rubber body suit with mask, zips, and chains
> Webster's 11th Collegiate didn't get that last one, and I doubt most
> would know it.  I assume it's quite recent.  You'd have to be into that
> scene I suppose to hear it.  The gimp as a cripple is a fairly recent
> meaning from the 20s, gimp meaning in particular a limp is from the 30s,
> gimp as an ornamental flat braid or round cord goes back to the
> seventeenth century, and gimp as a fishing line strengthened with wire
> goes back to the nineteenth century.

I have asked both native English speakers and ESL about the name Gimp,
the _only_ response that I have ever gotten was the limp and the
sexual fetish. The etymology may go back to different meanings, but
for people who lived in the last few decades only the negative
connotations remain.

Try it, ask someone "What is a proton?", "What is a hard drive?",
"What is a gimp?" and see what answers they give you.


> That may well be, and I'm sorry for you that that's so, (unless you like
> it of course), and I also have all sorts of associations with the word
> gimp, but GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program, no?  That's what I
> think of.

You know "gimp" as the GNU Image Manipulation Program because you are
already familiar with it. People who are not familiar with the GNU
Image Manipulation Program but are familiar with the negative or
sexual connotations of the word "gimp" will eschew the GNU Image
Manipulation Program bases on the name alone. I have introduced
literally tens of users to Kubuntu, Open Office, and Firefox with
minimal friction (OOo is sometimes problematic for MSO compatibility).
But nobody wants anything to do with "gimp", and not because of
usability issues. Granted these are ESL users mostly, but I have had
occasion to ask native speakers as well.

In any case, I have no vested interest in promoting GIMP adoption, I
have only presented it as part of my job. I present my findings to
those who might find them actionable, here on the list. I won't appeal
to emotion or argue about it, I only state what I find: the name GIMP
is tainted. You might as well name the program Swastika (which was a
symbol of peace before the Third Reich).

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com