[Ads-l] Antedating of "Bummer" (Unpleasant Experience)

[Ben Zimmer]

The Hawthorne High School slang dictionary from '65 is online here (only
text, no page images):

https://cougartown.com/slang-dict1.html (introduction)
https://cougartown.com/slang-dict2.html (includes "bummer" entry)

On Sun, Jan 4, 2026 at 1:50 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> A 2006 edition of Partridge lists a 1965 date for "bummer". The
> citation points to a self-published dictionary of high school slang.
>
> Date: 2006 Copyright
> Title: The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
> Volume 1: A - I
> Editor: Terry Victor; Senior Editor: Tom Dalzell
> Quote Page 295
> Publisher: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, London
> Database: Google Books Preview
>
> [Begin entry excerpt]
> bummer noun
> 2 a disappointing of depressing event US
> - Miss Cone, The Slang Dictionary (Hawthorne High School), 1965
> [End entry excerpt]
>
> [Begin bibliographical entry, Page 2167]
> Cone, Miss
> The Slang Dictionary (Hawthorne High School), self-published
> Hawthorne, California, 1965
> [End bibliographical entry]
>
> Ben Yagoda mentioned the instance of "bummer" in Thompson's "Hell's
> Angels". JL's Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang has
> pertinent entries for "bummer" on page 311 of volume 1. JL also lists
> "Hell's Angels" with a 1966 date.
>
> The May 1966 issue of McCall's Magazine contains the article by
> Pauline Kael which described "The Sound of Music" as "the sugarcoated
> lie that people seem to want to eat". That issue of McCall's Magazine
> is available in the Internet Archive. Below is a link. I did not see
> the word "bummer" in Kael's article. Rich Lowenthal also did not find
> "bummer" in a reprint of Kael's article.
>
>
> https://archive.org/details/sim_rosie_1966-05_93_8/page/154/mode/2up?q=sugarcoated
>
> Garson
>
> On Sun, Jan 4, 2026 at 2:13 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Excellent citations, Fred. Based on the match you found I found the
> > same text in a newspaper that was published six days earlier. The
> > words were spoken by a person at "Whisky a-Go-Go" on the Sunset Strip.
> >
> > Date: October 24, 1966
> > Newspaper: San Francisco Chronicle
> > Newspaper Location: San Francisco, California
> > Article: As L.A. Goes It's Real Gone
> > Author: Arthur Hoppe
> > Quote Page 43, Column 5
> > Database: Newspapers.com
> >
> >
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-francisco-chronicle-bummer/188138504/
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > Stepping into a typical, average establishment called "The Whisky
> > a-Go-Go," I spent two hours exhaustively interviewing such typical,
> > average voters as a little old boy in short pants and tennis shoes, a
> > lady in spangled trousers and matching halter and something in a
> > sailor suit, black net stockings and deerskin boots eating raisins.
> >
> > Unfortunately, my notes are few because I couldn't hear any answers
> > except when the band wasn't playing. But they include: "You trying to
> > put me on a bummer?" "Like it's a freak out, man." And, inevitably:
> > "What are you, some kind of nut?"
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > The OED has another sense of "bummer" which is linked to LSD. The
> > first OED citation for this sense was from 1968. Below is a match in
> > November 1966.
> >
> > [Begin OED excerpt]
> > bummer noun
> > 2. An unpleasant or distressing (psychological) experience caused by
> > taking a hallucinogenic drug (especially LSD). Cf. bad trip n., bum
> > trip n.
> > [End OED excerpt]
> >
> > Date: November 18, 1966
> > Newspaper: Berkeley Daily Gazette
> > Newspaper Location: Berkeley, California
> > Article: A Reporter's Quest: How Users Look at LSD -- Glorious, Dangerous
> > Quote Page 12, Column 3
> > Database: Newspapers.com
> >
> >
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-berkeley-gazette-bummertrip/188139241/
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > "I think it's like this," said the 20-year-old collegion after the
> > first "bummer" trip had passed from his mind for the very first time,
> > "LSD is a poison in your system attacks your mind.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > On Sat, Jan 3, 2026 at 8:41 PM Shapiro, Fred
> > <00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > bummer (OED 1967)
> > >
> > > 1966 Chula Vista Star-News 30 Oct. 12/4 (Californis Digital Newspaper
> Collection)  You trying to put me on a bummer.
> > >
> > > 1966 College Times (California State University, Los Angeles) 16 Dec.
> 5/3 (JSTOR)  When they're playing games and you're not, it's kind of a
> bummer.
> > >
> > > Fred Shapiro
> > >
>

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