Blimp - Etymology

Etymology

The term "blimp" is reportedly onomatopoeic, the sound the airship makes when one taps the envelope (balloon) with a finger. Although there is some disagreement among historians, credit for coining the term is usually given to Lt. A.D. Conningham of the British Royal Navy in 1915.

A 1943 etymology published in the New York Times confirms the British origin during the First World War when the British were experimenting with lighter-than-air craft. The initial non-rigid aircraft was called the A-limp; and a second version called the B-limp was deemed more satisfactory.

A different derivation is given by Barnes & James in Shorts Aircraft since 1900:

In February 1915 the need for anti-submarine patrol airships became urgent, and the Submarine Scout type was quickly improvised by hanging an obsolete B.E.2c fuselage from a spare Willows envelope; this was done by the R.N.A.S. at Kingsnorth, and on seeing the result for the first time, Horace Short, already noted for his very apt and original vocabulary, named it "Blimp", adding, "What else would you call it?"

An oft-repeated, but false, etymology is that the United States military initially had two classes of aircraft: A-rigid and B-limp, hence "blimp". In fact,

... there was no American "A-class" of airships as such – all military aircraft, heavier or lighter-than-air were designated with "A" until the appearance of B-class airships in May 1917. There was an American B airship – but there seems to be no record of any official designation of non-rigids as "limp". Further, according to the Oxford Dictionary, the first appearance of the word in print was in 1916, in England, a year before the first B-class airship. —"Etymology of "Blimp" by Dr. A. D. Topping, AAHS Journal, Winter 1963.