ORIGIN OF THE WORD BLIMP

[Devin <devinvonzeppelin@xxxxxxxxx>]

I was checking out an etymology (word/phrase origins) site when I happened
to stumble across the word blimp. I was glancing over this when I found
myself doing a double take. In the paragraph on word origin possibility
number three I was somewhat surprised to have caught the name J.R.R.
Tolkien. (see below for the paragraph).  

I know that the Tolkien/blimp/Zeppelin connection is nothing more than a 
coincidence. However, it's definitely falls into the category of strange
coincidence.  

Running across this reminded me of the first time I discovered the
Infrequently Murmured Trivia List. 
http://www.buckeye-web.com/ledzeppelintrivia.html 
For a while it seemed that every time I would read through it I would run
across some new and interesting bit of trivia which I had missed before.

Devin  

- --
ORIGIN OF THE WORD BLIMP 
from http://www.wordorigins.org/home.htm

This term for a non-rigid airship is of uncertain origin. We do know that
it was coined during the First World War, but who coined it and why the
rather enigmatic term blimp was chosen may never be known. 

The OED2 says it is of uncertain origin. That dictionary gives three
explanations;

 The first explanation is that it derives from a Royal Navy airship
classification system. Under this system there were two types of airships,
Type-A, Rigid (i.e., dirigibles with metal frames), and Type-B, Limp.
Blimp is simply a clipped form of B-Limp. Credit for the coinage goes
either to the aviator Horace Shortt, according to a 1918 citation, or to a
Lieutenant A.D. Cunningham according to a 1951 citation. 

 The OED2 further confuses the matter by saying that the term may be
onomatopoeic. According to this story, officers would check the inflation
of balloons by flicking their fingers against the gas bags. If the bag
responded with the sound blimp, the bag was inflated to the proper
pressure. For what it's worth, the British Airship Association plumps for
this onomatopoeic explanation, and says it was Cunningham, not Shortt, who
coined the term in 1916. Their sources date to 1974, not as far back as
the OED2's. 

And, as if there were not enough confusion, the OED2 cites a 1924 article
by J.R.R. Tolkien who speculates that the word is a combination of
'blister' and 'lump.' 

Most sources go with the "Type B, Limp" explanation. Presumably because
the documentation is earlier. 

Do not confuse the British coinage of Blimp, meaning an
ultra-nationalistic person, with the aircraft. This usage is after a
cartoon character, Colonel Blimp, invented by David Low (1891-1963) in the
1930s.