dope

Pronunciation

• IPA: [dəʊp] (UK); [doʊp] (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Dutch doop (“sauce”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from dopen “to dip”.^[2][3][4][5] It is related to dip.^[4][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sauce or gravy; any thick liquid (1807, American English).^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart links many of the later senses through the idea of thickness.^[3] Dope came to mean any thick preparation, such as a lubricant,^[3][7] and a stupid, thick-headed person (1851).^[7][3][4] By 1889 it meant the thick opium preparation used for smoking, and then any stupefying drug;^[7][3][4] from 1900 it was used of drugs given to racehorses.^[3][7] The sense “inside information” (1901) may come from knowing which horse had been drugged before a race.^[3][4] To dope out, to figure out, follows in 1906.^[3][4][7] In the American South dope also means a cola drink.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1807 – a sauce or gravy.^[3][4]
• 1851 – a stupid person.^[7][3][4]
• 1868 – verb, to smear, daub.^[7][3]
• 1889 – opium; a narcotic.^[7][3][4]
• 1889 – verb, to drug.^[7][4][5]
• 1901 – inside information.^[3][4]
• 1906 – dope out, to work out.^[7][3]
• 1955 – verb, to treat a semiconductor with an impurity.^[7]
• 1981 – adjective, slang, excellent.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An illegal or narcotic drug, especially marijuana.
2. A drug given to a racehorse to affect its performance.
3. (informal) A stupid person.
4. (informal) Information, especially from an inside source.
5. A thick liquid or paste, such as a lubricant or a varnish for aircraft fabric.
6. (chiefly Southern US) A cola drink.

Verb

1. To give a drug to, or to add a drug to.
2. To figure out (usually dope out).
3. To add an impurity to a semiconductor.

Adjective

1. (slang) Excellent.

Word family

• doper
• dopehead
• dopester
• dopey
• dope fiend

Related words

• dip
• dopant

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press