Question An etymology of the word "Imp"

Some chewy diagrams showing how some of the words in the English language have evolved, https://twitter.com/mewo2/status/959135761361711107

In the first picture, it shows the evolution of the name of one of our favourite art teachers...

Now that is interesting, in that at times we call (or I did with my kids) young uns imps!

I'm going to have to dispute their etymology.

My understanding was that the word 'Imp' comes from the same root as 'Impair', from a French word, 'To Cut Off'. In Botany, to 'Imp' is to do the trick where you bend a branch down to the ground and fix it there until it puts down roots. Then you cut it off from the 'parent' tree and let the rest of the branch return to its normal state.

The use of 'Imp' for a demon is the notion that Satan is bound into Hell and cannot leave. Therefore, to afflict the world and defy God, Satan cuts off little bits of himself and sends them into the world, the 'Imps of Satan'

Actually, given that he says that it is descended from Latin impotus, it would be interesting to look at where that word went in French, because he has it in old English as impa, a young shoot (which is how you do imping bending the furthest and therefore youngest branch of a tree to the ground (or even binding a ball of soil to it) to cause it to root... so I'm going to say that while the exact etymology of the word might be slightly different than he states, I would guess that if it comes from the French impair then we can guess that going further back it is a good chance that it is still descended from impotus. So, the real question may be, which branch it was imped from!

From the Online Etymology Dictionary:

Old English impe, impa "young shoot, graft," from impian "to graft," probably an early Germanic borrowing from Vulgar Latin *imptus, from Late Latin impotus "implanted," from Greek emphytos, verbal adjective formed from emphyein "implant," from em- "in" + phyein "to bring forth, make grow," from PIE root *bheue- "to be, exist, grow." Compare Swedish ymp, Danish ympe "graft."

The sense of the word has shifted from plants to people, via the meaning "child, offspring" (late 14c., now obsolete), from the notion of "newness." The current meaning "little devil" is attested from 1580s, from common pejorative phrases such as imp of Satan. The extension from this to "mischievous or pert child" (1640s) unconsciously turns the word back toward its Middle English sense.

Interesting, Latin via German rather than French... Different branch from the same root. Interesting too like I said that I called my young 'uns imps