'Pimp' my ride...

[JapaneseMargaret]

Where does this saying come from? I know there's a TV show by the name, and basically the phrase means to do up, make better, improve, adorn, etc.

So how/why does the word 'pimp' come into it...?

Surely, given what the phrase means, the word people are after is 'primp', as in 'primp and preen'.

Just something that has been bothering me recently.

I think it means Pimp as in prostitutes. I guess a Pimp has a certain amount of bling about him.

It's a prostitute's pimp reference.

Horrible. I hate it when I hear children using the term.

I feel the same way about the common use of the word 'porn' - as in 'property porn'

But why, though? 'Pimp' doesn't make any sense.

It's as if somebody who was a bit 'street' misheard, or misunderstood the word somewhere along the way, and it should actually be 'primp'. Primp makes complete sense. Pimp does not.

Zen gardener has already explained it. Pimps are renowned for being ostentatious, so "pimp my xxxxxxx" means to "bling it up".

Primp my car isn't very gangsta sounding though is it?

No it isn't, but that's kinda my point.

It just seems incredibly coincidental to me that the chosen ('cool', gangsta) word is practically identical to a different, but far more appropriate word.

Yes, some (caricature, 'amusing' stereotype) pimps bling up, but by far the majority (real life) do not.

I was just interested in the origins, but am still left wondering if there was some confusion or misunderstanding by someone, when the phrase was first coined.

The word 'pimp' has a different use in American hiphop culture. As well as an actual pimp, it has long been used to refer to someone, and by extension something, cool. 'Pimping' something is making it like a pimp i.e. cool (although that simple statement misses out several generations in the development of this slang usage).

(BTW, I do not actually think pimps are cool.)