[Ads-l] Antedating of "Smack" (= Heroin)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Fred found an excellent antedating for "smack" referring to heroin.
The OED also has a 1942 citation for "smack" referring to a drug (not
necessarily heroin).  Below is a September 1938 citation for this
larger sense.

Jesse remarked that GDoS has a 1938 citation for the opium sense, but
I cannot determine the month of the GDoS citation.
https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/gtumqki

[Begin OED excerpt]
smack noun 4
slang (originally U.S.). A drug, spec. heroin.
1942 Smack,..a small packet of drugs.
L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark, The American Thesaurus of Slang: A
Complete Reference Book of Colloquial Speech §509/8
[End OED excerpt]

Date: September 12, 1938
Newspaper: St. Petersburg Times
Newspaper Location: St. Petersburg, Florida
Article: Federal Narcotics Agent Gives Local Police Tips on "Dips" and "Junkies"
Author: William Snyder (Times Police Reporter)
Quote Page 5, Column 1
Database: Newspapers.com
https://www.newspapers.com/article/tampa-bay-times-junksmack/188970000/

[Start excerpt]
Opium, a derivative from the poppy plant, was named as the basic
factor in the evasion of narcotic laws.
"Although there are 28 different drugs derived from opium, we are
interested in but two of them, morphine and heroin," Bransky told his
listeners. Speaking in the underworld vernacular, he said all
narcotics are known as "junk," "smack" or "stuff."
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 8:32 AM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
>
> Green's Dictionary of Slang cites a 1938 example from David Maurer, referring specifically to opium, and a 1949 from Vincent Monteleone, for which he does not provide the citation, but I've checked and it is defined as "narcotics".
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
>
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 12:33:13PM +0000, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> > smack, n. (OED, n4, heroin, 1960)
> >
> > 1955 Washington Daily News 20 July 7/1 (Newspapers.com)
> >
> > "I'm going to list the various names of heroin," said Sen. Price.  "Junk, stuff, H, horse and smack.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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