the.com/imp
a pocket-sized demon too curious to be evil, too gleeful to be good
means A small, mischievous demon or sprite of folklore, often used affectionately for a naughty but charming child.
from From Old English 'impa,' meaning a young shoot or graft of a plant — the bit you slip into the soil to grow something new. The gardening sense bloomed into the figurative: an 'imp' became a scion, an offspring, a young one. From there it shaded toward 'imp of the devil' — a little offshoot of evil — until the demonic sense took root entirely. The plant-graft meaning is genuine and surprising; the slide from 'sapling' to 'small fiend' happened gradually over the medieval period.
- origin
- Old English for a young plant shoot or graft
- falconry term
- meant repairing a bird's broken wing feathers
- folklore role
- minor demons bound inside bottles or rings
- computing
- named the demonic enemies in classic Doom
- modern use
- now mostly means a mischievous, troublesome child
imp award — international movie prize, annual film festival award given since 1999 in various categories
imp collective — british independent record label founded in 1995, known for electronic and alternative music