Entry · catalog no. 1034
hep
/ /hɛp/ /HEP
adjective · Harlem · nationwide · 1930s
✓ Verified
1.
Aware and in the know; tuned in to what is happening in music, style, and the mood of the moment. To be hep is to understand a thing before anyone bothers to explain it.
“She was hep to the sound months before the radio ever caught on.”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem jazz vernacular of the 1930s, set down by bandleader Cab Calloway in his 1938 Hepster's Dictionary, the first dictionary written by an African American. The later, better-known "hip" grew directly out of hep.
1938
Set down in Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary
1940s-50s
Evolves into 'hip'
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
Harlem · nationwide · 1930s
Spoken by
Harlem jazz musicians
$HEPThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded88 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
45/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1938
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@bxgriot
The Bronx, NY
@phillyanne
Philadelphia, PA
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary: Language of Jive — glossary · 1938
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceCab Calloway's Hepster Dictionary (Open Culture archive) — reference · 1939
submitted
See also