Hippies

[Baker, John]

        It's interesting to see the development traced by Jonathon Green, with the term moving from an ironic to an unironic meaning.  Once the term came to mean an unkempt young nonconformist, though (the OED says that the flower children were a sub-group of hippies), pejorative uses were immediate and profuse.  The earliest "positive" uses seem to be around 1967.  Here's a court case, referring to a court proceeding in October 1966:

>>In lieu of facts, he sought refuge in inflaming the court; in lieu of evidence, he painted the previously blameless accused in the colors of an agitator--a "hippie" opponent to the military who sought to evade the draft and, when called to the colors, determined to sit out the dangers of combat in the relative security of a military prison.<<

U.S. v. Long, 38 C.M.R. 121, 17 USCMA 323 (CMA Dec 15, 1967).


John Baker