junkie

Etymology

It is formed from English junk + -ie,^[2][3][4] also analysed with the suffix -y.^[5][6] The drug sense comes from junk in the slang sense of narcotics, especially heroin, which the OED records from 1921^[5][6] and Etymonline from 1925.^[6] The slightly earlier junker was used in the same sense from 1922.^[6][5] That noun first meant old cable or rope, and its origin is uncertain.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who deals in old or discarded things, a junkman: 1902, in the 27th Annual Report of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.^[5] The drug sense follows in 1923, in Nels Anderson's The Hobo: "One type of dope fiend is the Junkie."^[7][5][6][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, a dealer in junk, is now rare.^[5][2] From 1923 the word was slang for a drug addict, especially one injecting heroin, and occasionally for a dealer;^[5][7][3] Green's Dictionary of Slang records the spellings junkey, junky and junkster, and an occasional use for a cocaine user in 1960.^[7] As an adjective, of drug addicts or addicted to drugs, it is recorded from 1930;^[5] William Burroughs wrote of a "junky pan" in a letter of 1951.^[7] From 1962 it was extended, with another word in front, to anyone with a compulsive habit or an enthusiasm, a sense now common.^[5][2] In Australia junk was later used as a short form of the word.^[7]

Timeline

• 1902 – a dealer in old or discarded things (now rare).^[5]
• 1923 – a drug addict, especially a heroin addict.^[5][7][2][6]
• 1930 – adjective, of drug addicts or drug addiction.^[5]
• 1962 – a person with a compulsive habit or an enthusiasm for something.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (slang) A drug addict, especially one addicted to heroin.^[2][5][7][3]
2. (informal) A person who depends on or is very keen on something: a crossword junkie.^[2][5]
3. (slang) Occasionally, a person who sells drugs.^[2][5][3]
4. (rare) A dealer in old or discarded things; a junkman.^[2][5]

Adjective

1. (slang) Of drug addicts, or addicted to drugs.^[5][7][3]

Related words

• junk
• junkman

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com