[Ads-l] Replacement Antedating of "Hipster"

[Shapiro, Fred]

The OED's earliest citation for the word "hipster," contributed by me, is a 3 Dec. 1938 use in the New York Amsterdam News.  This is not really a satisfying citation, since it was clearly a misspelling of Cab Calloway's "Cat-ologue: A 'Hepster's' Dictionary."  Some years ago I posted an older cite from the Baltimore Afro-American, 8 Jan. 1938: "Nelson Jones is said to be the best hipster in Everett."  Ammon Shea has suggested that this is a reference to hip-shaking dancing rather than to hipness or hepness.

I now believe that the Nelson Jones cite should not be regarded as an antedating of "hipster."  In its stead I suggest the following;

1939 New Jersey Herald News 22 July 6/1 (Internet Archive)  Jive so to speak, must be very, very subtle to carry any weight with me !  And, must come from a "true hipster!" — by that I mean one who is well versed in the technique of executing insiduous [sic] jive with precise art.

I also suggest that the OED and the Oxford Dictionary of African American English note that there were other senses of the word "hipster" prior to 1939, referring to hip-gun-toting or hip-flask-toting gangsters or to dancers with lively hips.  "Hipster" is culturally important enough to have its prehistory clarified.

Fred Shapiro

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