low strings later than the mid-seventeenth century are commonly gimped (wound with fine wire on a moderate core) to allow sufficient tension without excessive mass or stiffness.
When people put a lot on what their folks used to do, it always means they haven't got gimp enough left to do anything themselves.
I'm a fisher of men and my gimp is doing a saltarello over every body of water to fetch up what it may.
Flat-wheel Walter...who is called by this name because he walks with a gimp on one side.