Everything from pining after a crush to actually respecting women could be considered simping. However, in the 2000s, online incel and misogynist communities began appropriating the word and using it alongside terms like “cuck,” “white knight,” and “beta.” In these anti-feminist spaces, it doesn’t take much to be called a simp.
As such, “simp” has been a vocabulary word in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) for a while. This term got its start in the Black community in the late ’90s, most notably when hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia used it as an antonym to “pimp” in their song “Sippin’ on Some Syrup”. Some use it as an acronym for “Sucker Idolizing Mediocre Pussy.” Loosely speaking, a simp is a man who invests a lot of time and energy into women who don’t want him. Popular Twitch streamer iDubbbz just addressed being labeled a “simp” after discussing his girlfriend’s OnlyFans account. Megan Thee Stallion raps, “you on some simp shit” in her song “Cash Shit”. If you’ve been online at all for the last few months, chances are you’ve seen people calling themselves ‘simps’ or accusing each other of ‘simping.’ The word is truly everywhere. Only Twitter could take decades-old niche slang like ‘simp’ and make it look like a new viral meme.
