From the song "I want to be bad" by Annette Hanshaw
...
If it's naughty to vamp the men,
Sleep each morning till after ten,
Let a lady confess, "Yes, I wanna be bad!".
...
The dictionaries seem to have the noun, parts of a shoe, or some other re-vamp, circa 1500's. The verb is what interests me, where is to take advantage of a man('s generosity). Oh my, all those innocent millionaires running around the early 1900's; poor lambs being misled by willy women. Me, break, give!
I wonder if Bram Stokers 1897 novel "Dracula" influenced this word, dare I say it, "resurrection"? Now that would be a very interesting trail to ferret out and prove. Also, the occult was in a major resurgence at the time when this verb and noun was on the rise, perhaps it roots are there too.
vamp
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: vamp
It's also used in music for a repeated riff, often as a band begins to play. Thus, "the jazz group vamped into an extended arrqngement of the Saints..."
pl
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: vamp
I never knew the shoe or music parts, just the sultry, seductive woman bit.
Vamp has different meanings, with different lineages.
Vamp has different meanings, with different lineages.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: vamp
"She's Hard Hearted Hannah, the vamp of Savannah, GA!"
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.
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