Etymologically
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dope

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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
  • 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