trippy

Etymology

It is formed from English trip + -y,^[2][3][4][5] from the noun trip in its sense of a hallucinatory experience brought on by a psychedelic drug,^[3][6] a sense Etymonline dates to 1959.^[3] The verb trip, to have such an experience, followed in 1966.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of, relating to, or like a hallucinatory experience brought on by a drug: 1969, in J. Fabian and J. Byrne's Groupie (published 1970).^[2][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1968.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Shorter Oxford labels the word colloquial and glosses it also as "mind-expanding, psychedelic", especially of the effects of LSD.^[5] The American Heritage Dictionary, which labels it slang, separates its use for things associated with psychedelic drugs, such as the lifestyle of the 1960s, from its use for things that resemble or evoke the perceptions such drugs cause, such as swirling bright colours.^[8] Green's Dictionary of Slang records it, originally in the United States, from 1972 in American campus slang, and with the figurative sense "bizarre, strange, disturbing";^[6] its quotations run from the American 1970s to British writing of the 1990s and 2000s and an Australian novel of 2007.^[6] In British roadman slang of the 2010s, it was something crazy or hard to understand.^[6]

Timeline

• 1969 – of or like a drug-induced hallucinatory experience.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1968.^[4]
• 1972 – producing drug-like effects, in American campus slang; also bizarre, strange.^[6]
• 2017 – crazy, hard to make sense of, in British roadman slang.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (informal) Like, or causing, the hallucinations of a psychedelic drug: The band played long, trippy guitar solos.^[9][10][4]
2. (slang) Associated with psychedelic drugs or the culture around them: the trippy poster art of the late sixties.^[8][4]
3. (slang) Bizarre, strange or disturbing.^[6]

Word family

• trippiness

Related words

• trip
• psychedelic

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
7. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press