http://blog.oup.com/2007/06/words/
"...In addition to provider of prostitutes,
pimp has been attested with the meanings boy who does menial jobs at a logging camp; boy who carries water, washes dishes, and performs other menial jobs. The
paper collar stiffs cigarette was known among loggers as
pimp stick, and a helper in northern Idaho mines was likewise called a pimp. A rather obvious cognate of
pimp is German
Pimpf little inexperienced boy.
"...The less-known meanings of Engl.
pimp servant at the lowest level of a social hierarchy indicates that
pimp provider of sex is not the only and, most probably, not the original meaning of this word. The development must have been from worthless person to the least respected servant and from those to a general term of abuse, later transferred to the sexual sphere. Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare, once used
pimp as meaning ninny, raw novice, but this fact was discovered only in 1977 and has not been noticed by the authors of later English etymological dictionaries."
And finally...
"Pimping ain't easy, but it's necessary." ~ Ice Cube
