The Origin of the Word “Hype”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Valerie and I’m calling from Los Angeles.

Hey, Valerie.

Hi, Valerie. What’s up?

Hi. Well, I came up with a phrase that I thought would be perfect for you guys.

I love learning more about language and this is a phrase I’ve been using a lot recently

Given everything that’s been going on and my feelings about it.

I was trying to look up the phrase, don’t buy the hype or don’t buy into the hype.

And I thought, you know, what an interesting phrase and hype itself is an interesting word to me.

And so I started to look it up just for fun.

And then I thought about you guys and I was like, oh, this would be perfect for them if they haven’t already covered it.

I’d love to make them do the research for me.

I’m looking up words for fun.

You’re definitely one of us, Valerie.

Okay, thanks, Tish.

Yes, I do.

I mean, it’s a daily thing for me.

I love language, so yeah.

Wonderful.

What immediately comes to mind is the Public Enemy song.

I grew up with 80s hip-hop, so Don’t Believe the Hype.

Do you know that one?

Absolutely, yes, yes.

Don’t Believe the Hype, it’s a sequel.

It’s an equal.

Can I get this through to you?

My 98’s booming with the trunk of funk.

All the jealous punks can’t stop the dunk.

Yes. Yes. And I was thinking like I was wondering if it came, you know, if that was the actual origin of the song, because it is a very popular.

From Public Enemy all the way back is a long road. Actually, let’s let’s work backward from there.

So what we’re talking about is hype. Let’s hype is the key word here.

I think really in your phrase, don’t buy the hype, we’re going to talk about why you wouldn’t want to buy the hype or why you wouldn’t want to believe the hype.

Hype we’re talking about is what?

How would you define that?

Hype, to me, as I understand it, is anything that’s being really talked about and encouraged to be focused on or bought into.

Something you buy into.

Yeah, excessive praise or talk about someone or something.

Exactly.

But there’s a specific sense here, and I think this is what Chuck D and Public Enemy were talking about, and that’s unwarranted or inaccurate talk.

This is where it’s especially excessively positive or promotional language in a marketing or advertising context about something that doesn’t deserve it, right?

Yes.

And this is the hype that we need to follow backward.

As far back as the 1950s, hype was advertising lingo for wild marketing or a promotional effort.

Maybe one that had a big stunt or a gimmick or had misleading, ostentatious, or inflated, out-of-proportion chatter or talk or banners or signage or whatever.

It was just outrageous.

And this is exactly where our verb and noun hype come from today.

But that hype, that advertising hype, came from street language where hype meant exaggeration or lies as far back as the 1930s.

And at the same time, and even a little earlier, it referred to confidence games and swindles, con games, that involved persuading a mark of something that wasn’t true.

A mark is the person that you’re trying to trick.

Oh, wow.

Wow, it’s very insidious.

Yes.

So a typical con game of this kind of hype was the one where the con would try to persuade the clerk that they’d given them the wrong change, sometimes by convincing they had given them a bigger bill.

So this is a very typical kind of hype con that people would do as far back as the 1930s.

I mean, there were many, many, many more.

And now it’s older than that, though.

This is where hype gets murky.

If you look in a lot of reference books, they’ll say or suggest that hype comes from hyperbole.

But that doesn’t really sound right to me.

Do you hear like the, there’s kind of a tone mismatch, right?

Yeah, a bit.

Hyperbole is this fancy word.

Wouldn’t you say, Martha?

It’s kind of academic.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It’s academic.

Or literary even.

And hype is non-academic or it’s of a lower register or it’s even commercial speech.

Would you consider it like slang?

Hype?

The word hype?

Yeah.

Some uses of hype are slang.

And hyperbole isn’t at all, right?

Hyperbole is a fancy word and hype is not a fancy word.

Hype is comfortable slippers and hyperbole is black patent leather, right?

Mm—

And some other sources suggest hype comes from hypodermic.

The idea that legal and illegal stimulants are delivered by hypodermic needles and they kind of

Jack you up and make you under the influence of some drug, right, or some chemical.

And maybe that’s similar to the way that you become kind of under the influence of someone’s

Scam. But the problem with both hyperbole and hypodermic is that we don’t have the evidence.

Now I’m a dictionary editor and what I want is evidence. I need to see printed evidence with a

Date on it. And so I don’t really believe those. But what I do find is evidence that hypnotize

Might be the word. And another word, which is hipped. There’s a word which you might

Don’t really hear. Yeah, I don’t know this one. How do you spell it? I’m assuming it’s with an

HY as well? Well, HYPPED or HIPPED. If you’re hipped, you are hipped on a girl or a guy,

You might be completely besotted with them.

Are they all you can think about?

Or they control your every movement or every thought?

I see a ton of uses where hypnotized is shortened

And used in exactly the same way that we use hype today.

Now, there’s a problem with pronunciation, and I can’t solve that.

But here, take this example.

It appeared in the Boston Globe in 1906

In an article about vaudeville and theater language.

And they use it exactly the same way.

It says, I was out of sight down in Washington last week.

They had me winking for a while, but my act was surefire with that bunch.

And the first thing I knew, I was knocking them off their seats and soon had them hyped.

And translated, that’s my score success in Washington last week.

They had me guessing for a while, but my act was a good one.

And I knew I was soon making an impression.

And that last line is the translation of hyped.

And soon had them hyped was, I soon had them making an impression.

And so anyway, to short, I think hype, and I’m not 100% certain, is a combination of

Hipped, meaning you’re under the influence of someone or something, and perhaps has some

Influence of hypodermic.

But I really think it comes from hipped and hypnotized, both which mean you’re under the

Influence of someone or something.

Well, that’s a fabulous answer and very validating, honestly.

And you very much answered my question.

This has been absolutely fascinating to me, and I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Don’t believe the hype.

You’ve got to call again sometime.

Oh, I never do.

I’ll try to come up with more for you.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

Excellent.

Be well.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Thanks.

Have a good one.

Bye.