Who coined the term "hippie"?

Question

How and why are hippies called hippies?

Answer 1

That exact question, in those exact words ("Who coined the term 'hippie'?"} was asked about five years ago on www.funtrivia.com. The only answerer quoted the World Wide Words site, as follows: "Hippie (the more common spelling) is first recorded in print in the early 1950s. It derives from the older hip, dating from around the turn of the century, which itself may be a variant form of hep (though hip is recorded earlier than hep by a few years). There are several theories about the origin of the word, including one from the opium smokers’ 'on the hip' (as they reclined while smoking), through the West African Wolof language word hipicat meaning 'one who has his eyes wide open' (hence also hepcat), to a variant form of the drillmaster’s 'hep, two, three, four' which was supposedly taken over into jazz as a way of giving the beat."

From my own experience, I don't recall when I first heard the word, though I was an East Village "hippie" myself, "back in the day". It sounds an awfully lot like a Tom Wolfe-ism, but I guess not.

Answer 2

According to lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower, the principal American editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, the terms hipster and hippie derive from the word hip, whose origins are unknown.[26] The term hipster was coined by Harry Gibson in 1940,[27] and was often used in the 1940s and 1950s to describe jazz performers.

Answer 3

Hippie (the more common spelling) is first recorded in print in the early 1950s. It derives from the older hip, dating from around the turn of the century, which itself may be a variant form of hep (though hip is recorded earlier than hep by a few years). There are several theories about the origin of the word, including one from the opium smokers’ “on the hip” (as they reclined while smoking), through the West African Wolof language word hipicat meaning “one who has his eyes wide open” (hence also hepcat), to a variant form of the drillmaster’s “hep, two, three, four” which was supposedly taken over into jazz as a way of giving the beat.

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Who coined the term "hippie"?
How and why are hippies called hippies?

Answer 5

According to my sources, the term "hippy" was coined by San Francisco journalist Michael Fallon, which was a derivative of "hipster," made popular by Norman Mailer.

Answer 6

Hippie, often spelled hippy, refers to a subgroup of the counterculture that began in the United States during the early 1960s, becoming an established social group by 1965, and expanding to other countries before declining in the mid-1970s.[1][2] Hippies, along with the New Left and the American Civil Rights Movement, are considered the three dissenting groups of the American 1960s counterculture.[2]
Originally, hippies were part of a youth movement composed mostly of white teenagers and young adults, between the ages of 15 and 25 years old, who inherited a tradition of cultural dissent from the Bohemians and the beatniks.[

Answer 7

First coined by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen.

Answer 8

I can tell you the 'how and why' behind the word 'hippie' but not the who ... and I can even tell you where the word got started ...
Hippies were 'hip' ... which was a term the beatniks used first, in San Francisco. When 'hippies' started 'taking over' from the beatniks, they got called 'hippies' because they were 'hip' but were NOT beatniks. The name 'stuck' ... but the only 'who' I can give you is 'an old beatnik' ...

Answer 9

The term hipster was COINED BY HARRY GIBSON in 1940, and was often used in the 1940s and 1950s to describe jazz performers.

Answer 10

The Hippies.