[Ads-l] Phrase: hipped on the subject

[Z Rice]

Mr. Garson, I'm assuming that this was written as a counter to my initial
posting on the "Cry Wolof" myth, and by extension, the Wolof/African
etymology of the AAV term(s) "hip"?

Are you implying that "hipped" in the senses that you provided (meaning,
enthusiastic, excited, or fanatic (about)) is supposed to somehow be the
origin of the AAV "hip" meaning "to tell/to inform/well-informed"?

I'm hoping that the answer is no. A homophone or homograph does not equal
"same word", something that should be obvious to most on this mailing list.
Using homophones/homographs or "similar words" to convince of an "english
origin" is diversionary.

Still, I have numerous examples on hand of linguists actively attempting to
link African-derived vocabulary to english words, simply because they're
homographs or homophones.

I'd like to address the "Cry Wolof" myth since there was so much enthusiasm
about it here initially. Your signature states that you're affiliated with
the same university as Mr. Laurence Horn who coined the term "Cry Wolof". I
hope that he will kindly respond to my posts.


On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 8:43 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Phrase: hipped on the subject
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> JL's Random House Dictionary of American Slang has valuable
> information about "hip" and "hipped". This post is narrowly focused on
> the phrase "hipped on the subject".
>
> JL has an entry for an adjectival sense of "hipped":
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> hipped 3 adj. 1. infatuated (with); enthusiastic, excited, or fanatic
> (about).--usu. constr. with on.
>
> 1895 Wood Yale Yarns 262: It's because you are so hipped on a girl you
> think you see one behind every bush! 1910 Everybody's Mag. (May) 592:
> He...got a drag with our Old Man who was always hipped on helping
> along "ambition."
> [End excerpt]
>
> JL also listed another sense for "hipped"
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> 2. a. aware (of); informed (about).--constr. with on.
>
> 1920 F.S. Fitzgerald Paradise 238: Oh, just one person in fifty has
> any glimmer of what sex is. I'm hipped on Freud and all that, but it's
> rotten that every bit of real love in the world is ninety-nine per
> cent passion and one little soupcon of jealousy.
> [End excerpt]
>
> The phrase "hipped on the subject" seems to mean "obsessed with the
> subject" or "very interested in the subject". Some early citations
> have a connotation of hypochondria. Also, some later citations suggest
> a transition of the sense to "very knowledgeable about the subject".
> Please note that I am not a linguist.
>
> Year: 1856
> Title: The Queen V. Palmer: Verbatim Report of the Trial of William
> Palmer at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London, May 14, and
> Following Days, 1856, Before Lord Campbell, Mr. Justice Cresswell, and
> Mr. Baron Alderson
> Authors         William Palmer, Angelo Bennett
> Publisher: J. Allen, London
> Section: Second Day, May 15, 1856
> Quote Page 71
> Database: Google Books Full View
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> No; I think he had a little more sense than that; he would have his
> throat cauterised by any one he might be with, I mean any medical man;
> he was hipped on the subject of his throat.--I understand you to say
> his throat was not quite well; his tonsils were not quite well the
> last time you saw him?
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> Date: November 1895
> Journal: The Pittsburgh Medical Review
> Volume 9
> Article: The Diseases of the Male Urethra
> Start Page 323, Quote Page 328
> Database: Google Books Full View
>
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> A patient in such a condition is liable to become hipped on the
> subject, and is in a most unenviable condition of mind over a
> pathological state of his urethra, which exists only in his own
> disordered imagination.
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> Date: May-June 1905
> Journal: Mind
> Volume 15, Numbers 5 and 6
> Article: In the Astral Light
> Author: Penelope Palmer
> Start Page 477, Quote Page 479
> Database: Google Books Full View
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> "Lady Macrae is very delicate," she explained--"has an extremely
> nervous temperament. In fact, she's a trifle hipped on the subject of
> the Stuarts; there is some family tradition about their connection
> with them. The Macraes, it seems, fought their battles--and hanged for
> them too, I believe.
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> Date: October 1910
> Journal: Industrial Engineering and the Engineering Digest
> Section: Correspondence
> Letter Title: "Hipped" on Motion Study
> Latter Author and Date: H. L. Grant on Oct 1, 1910
> Start Page 307, Quote Page 308
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> On the other hand, the man who becomes interested in making this kind
> of a study, will, if he has the right kind of mind, become so
> fascinated by it that it is on his mind almost all the time. This has
> been so much the case with Mr. Gilbreth that one of his friends, to
> whom he was describing the results that could be obtained, and who was
> somewhat skeptical, replied: "Gilbreth, you are hipped on this
> subject"; to which Mr. Gilbreth at once retorted: "Of course, I am
> hipped on the subject, and if you knew as much about it as I do, you
> would be hipped too."
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> Date: February 1914
> Journal: The Cosmopolitan
> Volume 56
> Article: The Auction Block
> Author: Rex Beach
> Start Page 299, Quote Page 312
> Database: Google Books Full View
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> His collection of Napoleana is the finest in this country; he is an
> authority on French history of that period--in fact, he's as nearly
> hipped on the subject as a man of his powers can be considered hipped
> on anything.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
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