Origin of dope
regional variations of dope
OTHER WORDS FROM dope
un·doped, adjectiveWords nearby dope
ABOUT THIS WORD
What else does dope mean?
A dope can be a fool, a slang term for “excellent,” or refer to drugs like marijuana.
Doping is using performance-enhancing drugs in sports.
Where did the term dope come from?
Dope comes from the Dutch doop, meaning âthick sauceâ and used for various types of gravy in English in the early 1800s. By the 1850s, dope was a mild insult for a âstupid personâ ⊠even Disneyâs 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarves featured Dopey.
You know what else is thick and sticky? Opium, referred to as dope by the 1880s. This drug can be packed into a pipe as a thick paste. By the 1900s, dope was slang for other drugs, including âmorphine,â âcocaine,â and âheroineâ and then especially âmarijuana.â A dope city is 2000s slang for a neighborhood where drugs are prevalent.
Dope spread into the hip-hop lexicon in its early days. Clean-living rapper Spoonie Gee cautioned teens on his 1979 âSpoonin Rap: âYou better look alive, not like you take dope.â Else youâll be a dope, slang for someone who is drugged out.
Rappers started using the word dope to mean âexcellentâ by the 1980s, which we can find in the lyrics of hip-hop OGâs Busy Bee and Grandmaster Flash. Some linguists call this process of changing a term with negative connotations into positive ones âinversion.â We see it in other slang like bad or sick, both meaning âvery good.â Associations with the euphoric feelings of being high and the âbad boyâ vibes of drug-dealing, street life, and partying probably also helped shift dopeâs meaning.
Doping, for âperformance-enhancing drugsâ like steroids banned in sports, came into the spotlight during scandals in baseball, cycling, and the Olympics in the 1990â2000s. Particularly prominent was Lance Armstrong, the tarnished Tour de France champion who admitted to doping in 2013. This sense of dope evolves out of horse-racing slang in the early 1900s, with dope referring to substances given to horses to improve (or impair) their performance. Expressions like the straight dope or inside dope comes from bettors getting all the information on a horse.
How to use the term dope
While dope for “excellent” came out of Black slang and hip-hop culture, it was quickly appropriated by mainstream culture. The nerdy, white step-brother in 1995âs Clueless remarked âthat would be pretty dope of usâ to help out his stepsisterâs friends.
Lana Del Rey commands “Be young, be dope, be proud,” on her 2012 single “Americans.”
I did my first pull up 4 months ago and today I did 50 in a WOD. @Crossfit is dope. #crossfitbluehouse
— Megan Lien (@MeganMLien) July 17, 2018
a dope morning
Posted by Ariana Grande on Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Dope has even made its way into Kpop on BTSâs 2015 single âDope,â in which the band boasts about being the slang term.
Despite the appropriation, it still sees plenty of use in Black culture. For example, comedians Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson launched a podcast called â2 Dope Queensâ that discusses topics on race and gender. Director Rick Famuyiwa titled his 2015 feature film Dope, about a geeky, Black teen man who overcomes adversity, including a bullying drug-dealer.
Dope is still used as slang for “drugs,” as seen in G Unit’s 2015 joint âMove that Dope”: âTurn the whole brick to a Lam / Been rockin’ the dope, soon as it get off the boat.â
Doping is widely used in discussions of sports. In the 2010s, a massive doping scandal rocked Russian sports, including an official Russian team being banned (though not individual athletes) from the 2018 Winter Olympics. The organization that tests athletes in international competitions is called the World Anti-Doping Agency.
More examples of dope:
âCongresswoman Maxine Waters Inspires a Dope Designer T-Shirt During Men’s Fashion Weekâ
âJazmin Brooks, Essence (headline), July 2018
âDope testing is due to be introduced at The Open for the first time this week at Carnoustie but South African golfing legend Gary Player questions why it has taken so long.â
âOisin McQueirns, Pundit Arena, July 2018
Note
This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the termâs history, meaning, and usage.