antedating (?) of "hep" 1907

[Stephen Goranson]

OED has 1908 for slang "hep" {and a 1941 "Joe Hep" mention) and 1904
for "hip."

At the Actor's Boarding House and Other Stories, By Helen Green (NY:
Brentano's.
1907).

p. 31 "I'm hep," said Terence, briefly, feeling in his pocket for the short
billy which had won him so many scraps over on "the Avenoo."

p. 109 He treats me elegant, an' soon's we leave Noo York I'm tuh be featured.
His wife might get hep here. ANNABELLE? What will yuh be featured as? ...

p. 205 I've got her going, and we're to elope and leave you and the Elephant
(this was his playful term for the chaperon) and put you hep afterward. ...

p. 282 "I ain't no tattle tale, an' I wouldn't a' got hep if I hadn't got a
flash a yuh connin' the chambermaid tuh open the dor--see?

p. 316 "Was it me fault the old geezer can't get Joe Hep to which shell the
pea's under?" asked Johnny, of the "Gov'nor," when Mr. Dunham personally
inquired as to how much the rube had been shaken down for.

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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