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

[Jesse Sheidlower]

The GDoS citation is from a Maurer collection that reprints articles from various sources, in this case from a two-part article in American Speech titled "The Argot of the Underworld Narcotic Addict". The entry for _smack_ is taken from part II, which was published in October 1938 (part I was April 1938). So Garson's St. Petersburg Times article is a slight antedating of this.

Jesse Sheidlower

On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 09:00:18AM -0500, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
> 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
> > >
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