Hip (slang)

Origin of term

The term hip is recorded in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in the early 1900s. In the 1930s and 1940s, it had become a common slang term, particularly in the African-American-dominated jazz scene.

The origin of hip remains contested; many proposed etymologies exist, but none is proven. Research and speculation by both amateur and professional etymologists suggest that "hip" is derived from an earlier form hep, but that is disputed. Some writers claim that the terms hip, hep and hepcat derive from the west African Wolof language word hepicat, which means "one who has his eyes open". Professional etymologists generally reject this, tracing the origin of this putative etymology to David Dalby, a scholar of African languages who tentatively suggested the idea in the 1960s. Indeed, the linguist Laurence R. Horn coined the "to cry Wolof" to criticize unsupported etymologies.{{Citation | author-link = Jesse Sheidlower | access-date = 2007-05-07}}.

Alternative theories trace the word's origins to those who used opium recreationally. Because opium smokers commonly took the drug lying on their sides or on the hip, the term became a coded reference to the practice and because opium smoking was a practice of socially influential trend-setting individuals, the cachet it enjoyed led to the circulation of the term hip by way of a kind of synecdoche. This etymology is rejected by Sheidlower. Slang dictionaries of past centuries give a term hip or hyp meaning melancholy or bored, shortened from the word hypochondriac. This usage, more prevalent around 1800, was virtually extinct by 1900.

Development

The word hip in the sense of "aware, in the know" is first attested in a 1902 cartoon by Tad Dorgan and first appeared in print in a 1904 novel by George Vere Hobart, Jim Hickey, A Story of the One-Night Stands, where an African-American character uses the slang phrase "Are you hip?" Early currency of the term (as the past participle hipped, meaning informed) is further documented in the 1914 novel The Auction Block by Rex Beach "His collection of Napoleana is the finest in this country; he is an authority on French history of that period—in fact, he's as nearly hipped on the subject as a man of his powers can be considered hipped on anything".

After the Second World War, the term moved into general parlance. The English humorist P. G. Wodehouse has his aristocratic narrator, Bertie Wooster, use the term "get hep" in his 1946 novel Joy in the Morning. Jack Kerouac described his mid-century contemporaries as "the new American generation known as the 'Hip' (the Knowing)". In 1947, Harry "The Hipster" Gibson wrote the song "It Ain't Hep" about the switch from hep to hip,

The 1936 drama film August Week End uses the term "hip" in dialogue. Norman Mailer, one of the voices of the Hipster-Movement, formulated the content-related interpretation of the terms "hip" and "square" in an essay in 1957 as opposites in attitudes towards life,

References

References

1. B. Kirkpatrick ed., ''Roget's Thesaurus'' (1998) p. 570
2. (November 2008). "Hip Sensibility in an Age of MassCounterculture". Jazz Perspectives.
3. "the definition of hip".
4. (2015-06-10). "The history of the word 'hip' {{!}} OxfordWords blog". OxfordWords blog.
5. James Campbell, ''This is the Beat Generation'' (1999) p. 36
6. Holloway, Joseph E. [http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_es_languages.htm The Impact of African Languages on American English]. Retrieved on 2006.10.05. {{webarchive. link. (April 29, 2007)
7. Horn, Laurence R.. (2011). "Etymythology and Taboo".
8. e.g. Grant Barrett, "[https://grantbarrett.com/humdinger-of-a-bad-irish-scholar/ Humdinger of a Bad Irish Scholar] {{webarchive. link. (2008-10-13", in "The Lexicographer's Rules", 2007.11.09)
9. P. Lee, ''Opium Culture'' (2006) p. 2
10. Jonathan Lighter, ''Random House Dictionary of Historical Slang''
11. Hobart, George. (1904). "Jim Hickey: A Story of the One-Night Stands". G. W. Dillingham Company.
12. [[Rex Beach]], (1914) ''The Auction Block'', New York: [[A. L. Burt]], pp. 91–92.
13. James Campbell, ''This is the Beat Generation'' (1999) p. 84
14. Norman Mailer: ''The Hip and the Square: 1. The List''. In: ''Advertisements for Myself''. Putnam’s, New York 1959