pimple

pimple

English

Etymology

Early Modern English pimple, pumple, from Middle English pymple, pympyl, of uncertain origin but probably a nasalized variant of Old English *pipel, *pypel, from Old English piplian, pyplian (“to break out in pimples, show eruptions”), probably related to Latin papula (“pimple, pustule”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pap- (“pock mark, nipple”)). Akin to Old English pipliġende (“having shingles”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: pĭm'p(ə)l
• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪmp(ə)l/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪmpəl

Noun

pimple (plural pimples)

1. (dermatology) An inflamed (raised and colored) spot on the surface of the skin that is usually painful and fills with pus.

   I had to pop that embarrassing pimple, it was huge and red and on the tip of my nose.

2. (slang) An annoying person.

   He's such a pimple! I wish he'd stop being so irritating!

3. (Cockney rhyming slang) Scotch (whisky)

   Synonym: pimple and blotch

Synonyms

• acker (old Australian slang)
• acne
• pustule
• spot (UK, slang)
• zit (US, slang)

Related terms

• pimpled
• pimply

Translations

inflamed spot on the surface of the skin

Albanian: puçërr (sq) Arabic: بَثْرَة‎ f (baṯra) Egyptian Arabic: حبة‎ f (ḥaba) Armenian: պզուկ (hy) (pzuk) Basque: oilaur Belarusian: прышч m (pryšč), ву́гар m (vúhar), вуго́р m (vuhór) Bikol Central: punggod (bcl) Breton: burbu (br) Bulgarian: пъ́пка (bg) f (pǎ́pka), пъ́пчица f (pǎ́pčica) Burmese: ဝက်ခြံ (my) (wakhkram) Catalan: bua (ca) f, buba f Cebuano: bugas Chinese: Mandarin: 疙瘩 (zh) (gēda), 丘疹 (zh) (qiūzhěn) Croatian: prišt m Czech: uher m, pupínek m Danish: filipens, bums (da) c Dutch: puist (nl) f, pukkel (nl) Esperanto: akno, aknero Estonian: vistrik Finnish: näppy (fi), finni (fi), märkänäppylä French: bouton (fr) m, pustule (fr) f Galician: espiña (gl) f, gran (gl) m Georgian: მუწუკი (muc̣uḳi) German: Pickel (de) m, Oas n (Bavaria) Greek: σπυρί (el) n (spyrí), σπυράκι (el) n (spyráki) Hebrew: פִּצְעוֹן‎ (pitson) Hindi: मुंहासा m (mũhāsā), फुड़िया (hi) f (phuṛiyā), स्फोटिका (hi) f (sphoṭikā), फुंसी (hi) f (phunsī) Hungarian: pattanás (hu) Hunsrik: Spingje f Icelandic: nabbi m, bóla (is) f, graftarbóla (is) f Ilocano: kamuro Indonesian: jerawat (id) Irish: goirín m Italian: pustola (it), pustoletta, brufolo (it) m, foruncolo (it) m Japanese: 面皰 (ja) (にきび, níkibi), 丘疹 (ja) (きゅうしん, kyūshin) Kapampangan: punggod, dilyawat Kazakh: безеу (bezeu) Khmer: មុន (km) (mun) Korean: 여드름 (ko) (yeodeureum) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: زیپکە‎ (zîpke) Northern Kurdish: pizik (ku) f Kyrgyz: ысык (ky) (ısık), безетки (ky) (bezetki) Lao: ສິວ (siu) Latin: pustula f, papula f Latvian: pūte f Lezgi: твар (t°ar) Lithuanian: spuogas m Macedonian: бубула f (bubula) Maguindanao: pamenus Malayalam: കുരു (ml) (kuru) Maltese: please add this translation if you can Maori: kiritona, para, mariao, huahua, mokamoka Mongolian: батга (mn) (batga) Northern Sami: náráš Norwegian: kvise (no) c Okinawan: にくん (nikun) Old English: please add this translation if you can Persian: جوش‎ (fa) (juš) Pitjantjatjara: please add this translation if you can Plautdietsch: Pekjel m Polish: pryszcz (pl) m inan, krosta (pl) f Portuguese: borbulha (pt) f, espinha (pt) f Prakrit: 𑀨𑁄𑀟𑀺𑀬𑀸 f (phoḍiyā) Quechua: cupu Romanian: coș (ro) Russian: прыщ (ru) m (pryšč), пры́щик (ru) m (prýščik), у́горь (ru) m (úgorʹ), па́пула (ru) f (pápula), пупы́рышек (ru) m (pupýryšek) Sanskrit: स्फोटिका (sa) f (sphoṭikā) Scottish Gaelic: pluc m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: бубуљица f, пришт m Roman: bubuljica (sh) f, prišt (sh) m Sicilian: cocciu (scn) m, cucciteḍḍu m, pàpula (scn) f Slovak: pupienok m Slovene: mozolj (sl) m Spanish: espinilla (es) f, grano (es) m Swedish: finne (sv) c Tagalog: tagihawat, katil (very itchy) Tajik: гармича (tg) (garmiča), рихинак (rixinak) Thai: สิว (th) (sǐu) Tibetan: ཐོར་པ (thor pa) Turkish: sivilce (tr), sızanak (tr) Ukrainian: прищ m (pryšč), вуго́р m (vuhór) Uzbek: boʻjama (uz) Vietnamese: mụn nhọt (vi), mụn (vi) Waray-Waray: punggod Welsh: tosyn m, ploryn m, pigodyn m Yiddish: פּרישטש‎ m (prishtsh)

annoying person

Dutch: etter (nl) m, puistenkop (nl) m, ellendeling (nl) m French: casse-couilles (fr) m Greek: κακό σπυρί n (kakó spyrí) Maori: pōrearea Russian: негодя́й (ru) m (negodjáj) Spanish: pendejo (es) m

See also

• blackhead
• whitehead

Verb

pimple (third-person singular simple present pimples, present participle pimpling, simple past and past participle pimpled)

1. To develop pimples

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

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Spanish

Verb

pimple

1. inflection of pimplar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative