vamp [ME] From around 1200 the vamp was the part of a stocking that covered the foot and ankle, and from the 17th century the upper front part of a boot or shoe. The word comes from an early form of French avantpied, from avant ‘before’ and pied ‘foot’ (compare vanguard at avant-garde). One of the cobbler’s regular tasks was to replace vamps, and from the late 16th century the job could be described as vamping boots and shoes (revamp is only found from the mid 19th century). This cobbling work gave rise to a general sense ‘to improvise’ and to vamp up ‘to repair or improve’. The ‘improvise’ sense survives in jazz and popular music. The vamp who uses her sexual attraction to exploit men is an early 20th-century shortening of *vampire.