Impish means mischievous in a playful way. An impish grin, impish humour, impish delight.
It is entirely affectionate, and an impish grin is one that has just done something and is pleased about it. The imp behind it was a small devil, so the word has softened a very long way.
1adjectiveimpishMischievous in a playful way.
“She has an impish sense of humour and loves hiding her brother's shoes.”
impish is a quality.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰuH- — to appear; to become; to grow
Ancient Greek
ἔμφῠτος — implanted; planted
Vulgar Latin
*imputō — to graft
Proto-West Germanic
*impōn — to graft
Old English
impian
Middle English
impen
English
imp
English, today
impish
Built from
From imp + -ish. imp comes from Middle English impen, ympen (“to plant; (figuratively) to bury; to graft; to add to, insert, put into, set in; to mend (a falcon’s feather) by attaching a new feather on to the broken stump”), from Old English impian, ġeimpian (“to graft”), from Proto-West Germanic impōn (“to graft”), from Vulgar Latin imputō (“to graft”), from Ancient Greek ἔμφῠτος (“implanted; planted”), from ἐμφῠ́ω + -τος.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA