The term hip is recorded in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in the early 1900s. In the 1930s and 1940s, it had become a common slang term, particularly in the African-American-dominated jazz scene. See more

• Hip hop music
• Etymology of hippie
• Hipster (1940s subculture)
• Hipster (contemporary subculture)
• Square (slang) See more

• Crying Wolof: Does the word hip really hail from a West African language? by Jesse Sheidlower at Slate
• "Hip Song (It Does Not Pay to be Hip)", lyrics of Shel Silverstein song recorded by Chad Mitchell Trio on 1964 album Reflecting See more

The word hip in the sense of "aware, in the know" is first attested in a 1902 cartoon by Tad Dorgan and first appeared in print in a 1904 novel by George Vere Hobart, Jim Hickey, A Story of the One-Night Stands, where an African-American character uses the slang phrase … See more

• Anatole Broyard, 'A Portrait of the Hipster' Partisan Review June 1948
• Norman Mailer, 'The Hip and the Square' 1. The List. In: … See more