[Ads-l] Antedating of "Scag" (Heroin)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Sounds just descriptive to me, esp. at a time when "dope" was coming to
mean specifically 'marijuana.'

"Heroin isn't mere dope...."

JL

On Sat, Nov 22, 2025 at 10:48 AM Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:

> On 11/22/25 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> > Date:    Fri, 21 Nov 2025 15:26:29 -0500
> > From:    Ben Zimmer<bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Re: Antedating of "Scag" (Heroin)
> >
> > On Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 7:02 AM Shapiro, Fred <
> > 00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> >> scag (OED, 2., 1967)
> >>
> >> 1965 Newport (R.I.) Daily News 3 July 1/8 (Newspapers.com)
> >>
> >> Archie Shepp ... definitely had something to say, so strongly that he
> >> could not leave it all to the music, in "Scag" erupted into words with
> >> verses about the effect of heroin on the downcast and dejected.
> >>
> > This is about Archie Shepp's performance of "Scag" at the Newport Jazz
> > Festival on July 2, 1965, which was recorded for the album _New Thing at
> > Newport_ with John Coltrane (released Feb. 1966). The liner notes for the
> > album explain: "'Scag,' Shepp observes, 'is a colloquialism for heroin.'
> > The mood is bleak and mesmeric. As you can hear Shepp say, 'Where tracks
> > is, the money ain't.'" Shepp's spoken-word poetry ends with the line,
> "Scag
> > ain't dope, it's death."
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> A much earlier positive "dope" than I expected. (But I have to allow for
> my ignorance.)
>
> ---Amy West
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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