Vamp

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /væmp/

Definitions

1. A woman who charms or seduces men ; to fix or replace the front upper part of a shoe ; to create or perform something spontaneously without preparation
2. An attractive woman using charm to entice ; to mend the top section of footwear by patching or replacing ; to improvise music or dialogue when needed
3. A captivating female often linked with seduction ; to restore the upper portion of a shoe after damage ; to fill in or extend a performance or song by inventing in the moment

Etymology: The most surprising thread here is that "vamp" in the seductress sense is a clipping of "vampire," and the two senses share no root at all. The shoe sense comes from Old French "avantpied," literally "fore-foot": "avant" meaning "in front" plus "pié" meaning "foot." Medieval English speakers borrowed the term for the covering over the top of a foot, perhaps a slipper or stocking, and later for the upper of a boot or shoe. From that footwear sense, the word spread to anything patched up or improvised. A "vamp" became a patch, and then a repeated, often improvised accompaniment in music. That in turn gave rise to the modern sense of filling time by stalling or extending a performance, and the verb forms followed from the noun. The seductress meaning arrived much later and by a different route. It is a clipping of "vampire," and the character type was developed first for silent film, notably for Theda Bara's role in the 1915 film "A Fool There Was." Its shared spelling with the footwear word is a coincidence of history.

Synonyms: footer, rim