Wikipedia on "Hippie"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 4/19/07, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> OED's first use of _hippie_ is dated 1953.  FWIW, Wikipedia claims the
> following:
>
> Like the word "hipster", the word "hippie" is jazz slang from the 1940s"
> One of the first recorded usages of the word "hippie" was in a radio show of
> November 13, 1945, in which Stan Kenton called Harry Gibson a hippie (NBC
> studios, live radio program, the "Jubilee" show at Billy Berg's jazz club in
> Hollywood, CA, and recorded through the transcription service of the Armed
> Forces Radio Corps, or AFRC, and available on the CD "Stan Kenton And Friends,"
> 2006).

A short audio clip is available here:

http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/mediaplayer.asp?ean=689076480833&disc=1&track=2

The clip captures some patter between Kenton and Gibson at the
beginning of "Down the Road A-Piece." Here's my rough transcription:

---
Gibson: Hey, hey... I said sad, man, not miserable!
Kenton: I'm way ahead of you, Hippy!
Gibson: Look out, Jack! Put it down! I think you got a good deal, MacNeill!
---

Gibson's nickname was "Harry The Hipster," and it sounds to me like
Kenton was simply using a diminutive form of the nickname as a
vocative. Calling Gibson "Hippy" is quite different from calling him a
hippie.

More transcripts of Gibson's hipster talk (including another
appearance of "Good deal, MacNeill") can be found here:
http://www.hyzercreek.com/harrylyrics.htm


--Ben Zimmer

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