on "dope"/"doping"

[Ben Zimmer]

My latest Wall St. Journal column is on the origin of "doping" in sports:

http://on.wsj.com/dopingbz

It's behind the paywall, but you should be able to get to it via Google+:

http://plus.google.com/u/0/106145215829137347796/posts/fQAL2tbaLni

And here is my Word Routes followup, with citations:

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/the-straight-dope-on-doping/

I found "dope" as a verb meaning 'drug (a horse)' from 1873, and as a
noun meaning 'opium for smoking' from 1883. (OED2 has 1889 for both.)

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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