Hippies

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:05 AM -0800 2/26/03, Peter Richardson wrote:
>A friend just sent this request. I'm OED-less at the moment and would be
>grateful for your comments. Thanks
>
>Peter R.
>
>Howie and I have been discussing the specific origin of the term
>"hippie." We know the basic etymology, but we wonder if its first use in
>print has been tracked down; does anyone, R. Crumb perhaps, get credit
>for creating it?

The first OED cite is 1953, back in what we think of as the beat(nik)
era, well before R. Crumb:

1953 D. WALLOP Night Light 157 Man, I really get a bellyful of these
would be hippies.

...and if they were "would-be hippies", this suggests that there were
already well-established bona fide hippies by then, although I think
of it as a 60's label.  (The second cite in the OED is from 1959.)  I
don't have my RHHDAS on me, but that should have much more on this
history.

larry