Etymologically
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hippie

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is formed from English hip + -ie, from hip in the sense "aware, up to date",[2][3][4][5] or with the suffix -y in the OED's analysis;[6][7] it is also spelled hippy.[8][9][3] Etymonline and Barnhart treat the first use as a variant of hipster (1941),[10][5] and the OED compares the earlier hipster and hepcat.[6] The adjective hip is itself of uncertain and disputed origin: it is often taken as a variant of hep, which has the same sense and is recorded from about the same time, and the OED rejects proposed sources in Wolof and in hip the body part.[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hip person, one in the know, especially about jazz: first recorded in the magazine Billboard in 1948.[6] Green's Dictionary of Slang dates a hippie in this sense to 1952, in a novel set in 1948,[11] and Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1953, as a disparaging word.[5][10]

Semantic evolution

In Black American slang of the 1950s a hippie was often a would-be hipster who failed to be one;[11] Green's Dictionary of Slang notes that, unusually, the word changed from negative to positive when it crossed from the Black to the white world.[11] About 1965 the word was taken up in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco for the young people of the new counterculture,[10][5] with long hair, unconventional clothes, drug use and a rejection of middle-class values;[5][6][8] the OED's first record of this sense is from 1966.[6] Grammarphobia points out that in some texts of the early 1960s it is hard to tell which of the two senses is meant.[12] The adjective is recorded from 1959.[6] Since the 1960s and early 1970s the word has again become largely negative, now for a throwback to the 1960s.[11]

Timeline

  • 1948 – a person who is hip, especially about jazz; a hipster.[6]
  • 1953 – a disparaging word for a would-be hipster.[11][10][5]
  • 1959 – adjective, of or like a hippie.[6]
  • c. 1965 – a member of the counterculture of the 1960s, in Haight-Ashbury slang.[10][5][3] The OED's first record is from 1966.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A member of the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, which rejected conventional values and favoured pacifism, unconventional dress, long hair and communal living: Her parents met as hippies in a commune in Oregon.[3][6][8]
  2. Broadly, a person, usually young, who rejects established customs and lives by a similar nonviolent ethic.[3]
  3. (dated) A hipster, one in the know, especially about jazz.[6][11]

Adjective

  1. Of, relating to or typical of hippies: a hippie vest with long fringes.[6][9][11]

Word family

  • hippiedom
  • hippiehood
  • hippieish

Usage notes

In Caribbean English a hippie is also a half-bottle of liquor, one small enough for a hip pocket.[11] The adjective hippy also means having large hips, from hip the body part (1854).[6][9]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "How hip is a hippie?", 16 December 2016