Entry · catalog no. 1003
hip
/ /
adjective · Harlem / national ·
✓ Verified
1.
Aware, in the know — carrying the kind of knowledge no school issues. Later: ahead of the crowd in taste and style.
“Stay close to your uncle — he'll get you hip to how this city works.”
Origin & Attribution
Black urban vernacular, in print as "hep" by the early 1900s and defined by Cab Calloway in his 1938 Hepster's Dictionary as wise and sophisticated. A proposed root in Wolof "hepi" (to open one's eyes) remains debated. Every later "hipster" borrowed the word from Black jazz culture.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Harlem / national ·
Spoken by
$HIPThe Record · cultural traction
▲ 26 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
60/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
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
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary — glossary · 1938
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceJuba to Jive, Clarence Major (discussion of the Wolof theory) — reference · 1994
submitted
See also