[Ads-l] Antedating "hophead"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Also good (earliest?) ex. of "right," as in "right guy," etc.

JL

On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 4:00 PM, Hugo <hugovk at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Is "Hop" a Chinese word? - or a Chinese accent-influenced corruption of
> the first syllable of opium? - mispronunciation of "dope"?
>
> Dunno, but from 1889 via ADS-L 2007 from George Thompson is
> "hop-in-yen" or "hop" for short:
>
>
>         SCENES IN AN OPIUM JOINT.  ***  [on 14th street, in "the old
> Palm Garden"]  "Who's his jags?" sharply queried the door-keeper.
> "He's all right," announced the stranger.  "He was sent here by right
> people."
>         ***  "Give us a layout and a shell of 'dope,'" ordered the
> reporter's companion.  [The layout includes] a sponge called . . . a
> "yen-suey;" a long tapering needle . . . called a "yen-hock;" and the
> opium called "hop-in-yen," "dope," or "hop" for short.
>         The World, February 10, 1889, p. 20, cols. 5-6.
>
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-June/071929.html
>
> Hugo
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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