"B2431" wrote in message
...

The two most popular theories a

1) some British officer thumped one and the sound returned was
"blimp."

2) one of the early designations was "balloon, class B, limp"
which was
shortened to blimp in conversation.

An interesting aside is the term "dirigible" which some people use to
differentiate between blimps and rigid airships. The term "dirigible"
is from
Latin which means give direction to. In other words it's steerable
which both
blimps and rigid airships are.

From the OED:
blimp, n. [Of uncertain origin. Said to have been coined by the aviator
Horace Shortt (see quot. 1918) or by Lieut. A. D. Cunningham (1951
Aeroplane 5 Oct.), and to have been based on the adj. LIMP.]

1. A small non-rigid airship orig. consisting of a gas-bag with the
fuselage of an aeroplane slung underneath; in the war of 1939-45 the name
was sometimes applied to a barrage balloon.

1916 ROSHER In R.N.A.S. 11 Feb. 146 Visited the Blimps..this afternoon at
Capel. 1918 Illustr. Lond. News 27 July 96 Nobody in the R.N.A.S. ever
called them anything but 'Blimps', an onomatopic name invented by that
genius for apposite nomenclature, the late Horace Shortt. 1926 J. R. R.
TOLKIEN in Year's Wk. Eng. Stud. 1924 52 It is perhaps more in accordance
with their looks, history, and the way in which words are built out of
the suggestions of others in the mind, if we guess that blimp was the
progeny of blister + lump, and that the vowel i not u was chosen because
of its diminutive significancetypical of war-humour. 1928 GAMBLE North
Sea Air Station x. 149 The Submarine Scout non-rigid type. The name was
abbreviated to S.S. airships, but they were generally known as 'Blimps'.
1934 Discovery Jan. 14/2 Excellent photographs..could probably be secured
next summer from a small 'blimp' carrying a pilot and a photographer and
directed by wireless telephony. 1939 War Illustr. 29 Dec. 538/1 The term
'blimp' originated in the last war, when British lighter-than-air
aircraft were divided into A-rigid, and B-limp (i.e. without rigid
internal framework). The modern barrage balloon may therefore be classed
as a blimp. 1940 HARRISSON & MADGE War begins at Home v. 125 The
[barrage] balloons, so suitably called blimps, became a major symbol in
the first three months of the war.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)