I recently read the opening chapter of *Middlemarch* and was surprised by the appearance of the word *gimp* in relation to articles of clothing.  In this context it meant

> twisted silk, worsted, or cotton with cord or wire running through it, used chiefly as upholstery trimming

However, I was only familiar with the gimp from *Pulp Fiction*. According to wiktionary this is :

> A sexual submissive, almost always male, dressed generally in a black leather suit.

This is apparently derived from another meaning of *gimp* that OED dates to the 1920s (origin unknown).  

> a physically disabled or lame person

[Wiktionary][1] suggests that the word is a mutation of *limp* and therefore unrelated to gimp fabric. But what about the BDSM sort of gimp, when and where was the first such usage and which came first, the gimp or the [gimp suit][2]?


  [1]: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gimp
  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimp_%28sadomasochism%29