Uncertain; compare (probably from) Danish simper / semper (“coy”), German zimper (“elegant, dainty”).
Meanings
A foolish, frivolous, self-conscious, or affected smile; a smirk.
Yes, another world it was, when these black ruins, white in their new mortar and fresh chiselling, first saw the sun as walls, long ago. Gauge not, with thy dilettante compasses, with that placid dilettante simper, the Heaven's—Watchtower of our Fathers, the fallen God's—Houses, the Golgotha of true Souls departed! 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Ch. 2, St. Edmundsbury”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):
He paused, and then a strange expression appeared on his lips. It was very like a simper. 1972, Eric Ambler, The Levanter, published 2009, →ISBN, page 158:
Uncertain; compare (probably from) Danish simper / semper (“coy”), German zimper (“elegant, dainty”).
Meanings
(intransitive) To smile in a foolish, frivolous, self-conscious, coy, obsequious, or smug manner.
How the fools kotowed and simpered while I looked over their jewels and speculated upon how much I could get for them! 1915, Harold MacGrath, chapter 24, in The Voice In The Fog:
a whimpering, simpering child 1940, “Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered”, Lorenz Hart (lyrics), Richard Rodgers (music):
But where daft Nell simpers at him and tries to muss his slicked hair and pull it forward over his broad, Christian brow, my little Dot is looking nowhere but at the ground, still praying, praying even while she stands, and Rick has actually to touch her forearm with his finger in order to alert her to his Godlike nearness. 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
(obsolete) To glimmer; to twinkle.
Yet can I mark how stars above / Simper and shine. 1633, George Herbert, The Search:
fr minauder (To smile in a frivolous manner) · no glis (To smile in a frivolous manner) · de verschmitzt lachen (To smile in a frivolous manner) · sv le tillgjort (To smile in a frivolous manner) · cmn 傻笑 (To smile in a frivolous manner) · es sonreírse afectadamente (To smile in a frivolous manner) · bg усмихвам се престорено (To smile in a frivolous manner)