# Imp
An imp is a small mischievous supernatural creature of European folklore, generally understood as a minor demon or sprite, and, in everyday English, a playfully naughty child. Dictionaries record both senses: Cambridge defines the folklore sense as "a small evil spirit" and the colloquial one, often humorous, as "a child that behaves badly, but in a way that is funny rather than serious"[1](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/imp). Oxford describes the storybook creature as "a small creature like a little man, that has magic powers and behaves badly"[2](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/imp).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Folklore sense | A small, mischievous sprite or malevolent supernatural creature, comparable to a demon but smaller and less powerful; in use from the 16th century[3](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/imp) |
| Everyday sense | A mischievous or naughty child, often used humorously[1](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/imp) |
| Original meaning | Old English *impa*, *impe*, "young shoot, graft", from *impian*, "to graft"[2](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/imp) |
| Path to "little devil" | Shifted from plant to "child, offspring" in the late 14th century, then to "little devil" by the 1580s through phrases such as *imp of Satan*[4](https://www.etymonline.com/word/imp) |
| Verb | *To imp* means to graft new feathers onto a falcon's wing to repair damage or improve flight[5](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=imp) |
| Witch-trial role | In 16th- and 17th-century England, imps were the familiar spirits of accused witches, often taking animal form[6](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0268117X.2016.1147977) |
| Frequency | In British books from the 2010s, *imp* appears about 1.1 times per million words[7](https://www.webdictionary.co.uk/words/imp) |
## Etymology: from graft to devil
The word is old. [Old English](https://www.edgepedia.org/old-english) *impa* or *impe* meant a young shoot or scion used in grafting, and the verb *impian* meant "to graft"[2](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/imp). Etymologists trace it through [Vulgar Latin](https://www.edgepedia.org/vulgar-latin) *imputare* or [Late Latin](https://www.edgepedia.org/late-latin) *impotus*, "grafted shoot", to Greek *émphutos*, "implanted", from *emphuein*, "to implant"[4](https://www.etymonline.com/word/imp) • [8](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/imp). Cognates survive in Swedish *ymp* and Danish *ympe*, "graft"[4](https://www.etymonline.com/word/imp).
The semantic journey ran from botany to people to demons. The sense moved from plants to humans via "child, offspring" in the late 14th century, on the notion of newness[4](https://www.etymonline.com/word/imp). In late [Middle English](https://www.edgepedia.org/middle-english) the noun denoted a descendant, especially of a noble family; the *1911 Encyclopædia Britannica* quotes a 1584 epitaph in the Beauchamp chapel at Warwick, "Heere resteth the body of the noble Impe Robert of Dudley . . . sonne of Robert Erle of Leycester"[9](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Imp). Pejorative phrases such as *imp of Satan*, *imp of the devil*, or *imp of hell*, meaning "child of evil", then produced the "little devil" sense by the 1580s[4](https://www.etymonline.com/word/imp) • [9](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Imp). The extension to "mischievous or pert child" in the 1640s returned the word toward its earlier "child" meaning[4](https://www.etymonline.com/word/imp).
The grafting verb also survives in a specialized corner of falconry: *to imp* a hawk is to graft new feathers onto the stumps of broken ones in the wing or tail to repair it or improve flight[5](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=imp) • [3](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/imp). The German cognate took a different practical path: *impfen*, from the same grafting root, came to mean "to vaccinate"[10](https://blog.oup.com/2021/03/folklore-and-etymology-imps-and-elves-or-covid-19-and-backpain/).
## The imp in folklore
In folklore the imp sits low in the hierarchy of supernatural beings, a lesser entity between a fairy and a major demon[11](https://explainthat.org/what-is-an-imp-its-origins-and-role-in-folklore/). The folklorist Katherine Briggs, whose *Personnel of Fairyland* cataloged British preternatural beings, gave the entry "Imp: Not really a fairy, only a small devil"[12](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0048721X.2014.886631). Imps are typically credited with minor magic, such as shapeshifting or conjuring small amounts of fire, and with causing trouble in a playful rather than destructive way[11](https://explainthat.org/what-is-an-imp-its-origins-and-role-in-folklore/). Dictionary treatments differ in tone: Collins describes the fairy-story imp as "a small, magical creature that often causes trouble in a playful way", while others call it simply a small demon[13](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/imp).
## Imps and witchcraft
The word acquired its sharpest historical role in the witch trials of early modern England and Scotland. There the imp became a matter of evidence: it named the familiar spirit, a demon given to the witch by the Devil, often appearing as an animal such as a cat, dog, rat, toad, or weasel[6](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0268117X.2016.1147977) • [14](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/2/134). Trial records and pamphlets describe familiars that were nourished with milk, a chicken, or drops of the witch's blood, and kept in a box or earthen pot; the search for marks on the witch's body supposedly caused by such suckling became part of the evidence[15](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3AWitch-Cult_in_Western_Europe_%281921%29.djvu/209).
The legal framework hardened over time. Specific reference to witches who nourished and rewarded their "spirits" entered [English law](https://www.edgepedia.org/english-law) in 1604, the first explicit statutory reference to the familiar, which positioned it as an almost mandatory element of the witch's reputation[14](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/2/134). Contemporary demonologists themselves found the category difficult: writers posed questions such as whether all witches have imps, whether the imp works at the witch's or at the Devil's command, and who could attest in good conscience that a given dog, cat, rat, or mouse was a witch's imp, which made witch trials an uncertain business[6](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0268117X.2016.1147977). Corpus analysis of roughly 17.6 million words of early modern English shows that *imp*, *incubus*, and *familiar* had well-circumscribed associations and were restricted to specific genres, with *familiar* taking the place of *imp* in literary or demonological texts as the companion of a witch or magician[12](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0048721X.2014.886631).
Scholars have also connected the trial narratives to older folk belief. The historian Emma Wilby, author of *Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits*, argues that descriptions of imps and familiars in English witch trials bear close resemblance to later folkloric descriptions of fairies, and that beliefs about demon familiars were rooted in a widespread popular practice of working with fairy familiars[12](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0048721X.2014.886631) • [16](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.4418191).
## Modern usage
Today the folklore sense lives on mainly in fiction and fantasy, where imps appear as low-level antagonists or comic nuisance-creatures[11](https://explainthat.org/what-is-an-imp-its-origins-and-role-in-folklore/). The most common everyday use applies the word to a mischievous child, echoing the creature's habit of causing minor trouble[1](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/imp) • [11](https://explainthat.org/what-is-an-imp-its-origins-and-role-in-folklore/). Derived forms include *impish*, *impishly*, and *implike*[3](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/imp).
## References
1. [Imp, Cambridge Dictionary](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/imp)
2. [Imp noun, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/imp)
3. [Imp, Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/imp)
4. [Imp, Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/word/imp)
5. [Imp, American Heritage Dictionary](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=imp)
6. [Fairies and the Devil in early modern England, The Seventeenth Century](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0268117X.2016.1147977)
7. [Imp meaning, WebDictionary.co.uk](https://www.webdictionary.co.uk/words/imp)
8. [IMP Definition & Meaning, Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/imp)
9. [1911 Encyclopædia Britannica: Imp, Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Imp)
10. [Folklore and etymology: imps and elves, OUPblog (Anatoly Liberman)](https://blog.oup.com/2021/03/folklore-and-etymology-imps-and-elves-or-covid-19-and-backpain/)
11. [What Is an Imp? Its Origins and Role in Folklore, ExplainThat](https://explainthat.org/what-is-an-imp-its-origins-and-role-in-folklore/)
12. ['Goblins, owles and sprites': Discerning early-modern English preternatural beings through collocational analysis, Religion](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0048721X.2014.886631)
13. [Imp definition, Collins English Dictionary](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/imp)
14. ["Paltrie Vermin, Cats, Mise, Toads, and Weasils": Witches, Familiars, and Human-Animal Interactions in the English Witch Trials, Religions](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/2/134)
15. [The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921), Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3AWitch-Cult_in_Western_Europe_%281921%29.djvu/209)
16. [Emma Wilby, Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits, JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.4418191)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Mythology and folklore › Legendary creatures and beings › Fairies, elves, and little folk*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license