# happy hour?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-hour/120344>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 23, 2002, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-hour/120344 "2002-07-23T05:50:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![labyrinthine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9a140/32.png) [@labyrinthine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labyrinthine)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-hour/120344/1 "2002-07-23T05:50:10Z")

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does anyone know where and when the phrase “happy hour” originated?

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**Author:** ![Mike\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Mike\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_B)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-hour/120344/2 "2002-07-25T06:16:06Z")

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Well, since drinks are generally cheaper or free (male or female), you could get more drinks, so during this hour you could get shit-faced, and a lot happier…I think…

Of course, it was capitialized on, and made into happy-half-the-night, but that’s another story…

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**Author:** ![labyrinthine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9a140/32.png) [@labyrinthine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labyrinthine)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-hour/120344/3 "2002-07-25T06:38:56Z")

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well, I mean, how did it start? who started it, when, why, all that? someone I know thinks they know, and I’d love to prove them wrong.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-hour/120344/4 "2002-07-25T08:18:49Z")

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The _Oxford English Dictionary_’s first citation is from the _Providence Journal_ in 1961

> [@](#):
>
> All went home happy except the Newport police…and those deprived of their happy hour at the cocktail bar.

It may be related to “happy” as in “slightly drunk” (used in this sense since 1770). But the phrase was used in the sense “propitious moment” or “pleasant sixty minutes” for centuries before that.