I was just reading in the archives and came across the ‘hep’ controversy. In Bill Bryson’s book Made In America (a history of the English language in the USA), he claims that there is a Wolof (an Africanlanguage) word ‘hepicat’, meaning ‘one who is aware of his surroundings, has his eyes open’.
Assuming you have read this thread you will see that we don’t all accept Mr. Bryson’s explanations.
Read my last post, where I quote from JE Lighter. He flat-out says there is no credible evidence that hep comes from hepicat. If you can provide something other than Mr. Bryson’s assertion, then the world will be grateful.
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What’s the origin of “hip”? (01-May-2001)
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