vamp

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a short, repeated, often improvised musical accompaniment or chord progression

   The pianist repeated a quiet vamp while waiting for the singer's entrance.

2. 2
   verb

   often as vamp up: to patch, refurbish, or fabricate something by reworking old or existing material

   The forger vamped up a convincing fossil from unrelated fragments.

3. 3
   noun

   the front part of a shoe's upper, covering the toes and instep

   The cobbler replaced the cracked leather vamp without changing the sole.

4. 4
   noun

   dated: a seductive woman, stereotypically one who exploits men

   The silent film cast her as a glamorous vamp who deceives the hero.

Simplified etymology

Vamp comes from an early form of French avantpied, formed from avant “before” and pied “foot.” It first denoted the part of a stocking covering the foot and ankle and later the upper front of a shoe; the verb consequently meant to repair shoes and then to improvise or improve something. The noun for a seductive woman has a separate origin as an early 20th-century shortening of vampire.

The shoe noun comes through Middle English and Anglo-Norman vampe from Old French avantpié ("front of the foot"), from avant ("in front") + pié ("foot"). Replacing a shoe's vamp led to the senses "patch up" and "improvise," then to the musical noun. The seductive-woman sense is a later shortening of vampire, popularized by early cinema.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary