hippies

[Towse]

An interesting alleged history of the word at the bottom of this page.
[citation needed], they note: <http://hippietshirts.blogspot.com/>

The writeup includes the following:

"The term hipster was coined by Harry Gibson in 1940, and used by the
American Beat generation during the 1940s and 1950s to describe jazz
and swing music performers. The word evolved to describe bohemian
counterculture. [10] In 1963, British band The Swinging Blue Jeans
released the song "Hippy Hippy Shake", which rose to #2 in the British
charts and #24 in the US. On the east coast of the U.S. in Greenwich
Village, young counterculture advocates were named hips. At that time,
to be hip meant to be "in the know" or "cool", as opposed to being
called a stodgy "square". Disaffected youth from the suburbs of New
York City flocked to Village coffeehouses in their oldest clothes to
fit into the counterculture,. Radio station WBAI was the first media
outlet to use the term hippie as a pejorative term meaning "hip
wannabes", describing the poorly-dressed, middle class youths.
[citation needed]"

--
Sal

Ye olde swarm of links: thousands of links for writers, researchers
and the terminally curious <http://www.internet-resources.com/writers>


On 2/22/07, FRITZ JUENGLING <juengling_fritz at salkeiz.k12.or.us> wrote:
> All I know is what she wrote.  Can't add anything at all.
> Fritz
>
> >>> hwgray at GMAIL.COM 2/21/2007 12:32 PM >>>
> I don't believe it. I was living in L.A., at the time, and such people
> hanging out on Sunset Boulevard were called "hippies" in the local
> Southland media without reference to Frisco and prior to the
> development of The Haight into a Mecca for the faithful.
>
> Besides, the story has no explanatory power. Why did the author and
> her friends apply a soubriquet that was originally jazz slang [at
> least, this correspondnt and his ace boon coons believed this to be
> the case at the time and wondered how and why this bit of BE slang
> came to be applied to white people; it took a while to become
> accustomed to the hearing the word in its new meaning] to the wannabes
> in the first place?
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 2/21/07, FRITZ JUENGLING <juengling_fritz at salkeiz.k12.or.us> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       FRITZ JUENGLING <juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US>
> > Subject:      hippies
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Here is part of an email from a colleague introducing herself to the
> > staff:
> >
> >
> > After high school, I moved to San Francisco for a few years. Yes, it
> > was the 1960's and I  took up residence in The Haight - Ashbury
> > District. Here's a little tidbit that you may enjoy. The name
> "hippies"
> > was actually glommed on to by the press that used to visit the area
> all
> > the time. Us residents would watch all the young kids come into the
> > Haight all decked out in their jeans and beads and whatever they
> felt
> > would allow them to "fit in" to the scene. They often came in
> driving
> > their parents fancy cars or family station wagons. We used to refer
> to
> > them as "hippies" - now a days I guess we would have called them
> > "wannabes".  When the newspapers heard that name, it stuck to
> everyone -
> > including us! We all had a good laugh about it.
> >
> >
> >
> > Fritz J
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
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