Dope
(pronounced dohp)
(1) Any
thick liquid or pasty preparation, as a lubricant, used in preparing a surface.
(2) A combustible
absorbent material (historically sawdust or wood-pulp), used to absorb and hold
the nitroglycerine in the manufacture of dynamite (used also of the processes
in the manufacture of other products).
(3) An absorbent
material, such as sawdust or wood pulp, used to hold the nitroglycerine in
dynamite
(4) In aeronautics
(and other fields), any of various varnish-like preparations (made by
dissolving cellulose derivatives in a volatile solvent) used for coating a
fabric (wings, fuselage etc), in order to render it stronger and more taut, aerodynamic
and waterproof.
(5) Any of
a number of preparations, applied to fabric in order to improve strength,
tautness, etc
(6) A chemically
similar product used to coat the fabric of a balloon to reduce gas leakage.
(7) An
additive used to improve the properties of something (such as the “anti-knock” compounds
added to gasoline (petrol).
(8) A thick
liquid (typically a lubricant), applied to a surface.
(9) In slang,
any narcotic or narcotic-like drug taken to induce euphoria or some other
desired effect (and eventually to satisfy addiction); now used most of cannabis
although other terms are now more common.
(10) Any
illicit drug.
(11) In
sport, a “performance enhancing drug” (PED; steroids, peptides etc), taken by athletes.
(12) In
horse racing, a narcotic or other drug given surreptitiously to a horse to
improve or retard its performance in a race.
(13) In firearms,
ballistic data on previously fired rounds, used to calculate the required hold
over a target.
(14) In
slang, information, data, knowledge or news (sometimes used especially of confidential
information).
(15) In
slang, someone thought unintelligent, stupid or unresponsive etc.
(16) In US
slang (mostly south of the Mason-Dixon Line, especially Appalachia), a
carbonated, flavored and sweetened drink (used especially of cola-flavored sodas
(soft drinks)).
(17) In US
slang (East North Central Division of the Mid-West, especially Ohio), a sweet
syrup used as a topping for ice cream.
(18) To
affect with dope or drugs.
(19) To add
a narcotic or other drug to something.
(20) To
give a drug to (an athlete or horse), so as to affect performance in a race (for
better or worse) or other competition.
(21) To
take illicit drugs (in any context)
(22) In
engineering to apply or treat a surface with dope.
(23) In electronics,
to add or treat a pure semiconductor with a dopant.
(24) In slang,
photographic developing solution
(25) In
slang, great; excellent (always regionally variable and now les common).
1807: Apparently
a creation of US English meaning “sauce, gravy; any thick liquid”, from the Dutch
(dialectical) doop (thick dipping
sauce), a derivative of dopen or doopen (to dip, baptize; deep), from the
Middle Dutch dopen, from the Old
Dutch dōpen, from the Frankish daupijan, from the Proto-Germanic daupijaną. By extension, by the late nineteenth century
it came generally to be used of any mixture or preparation of unknown
ingredients producing a thick liquid. The
use of doop in the sense “narcotic
drug” was derived ultimately from the viscous opium juice (the drug of choice
of the well-connected in Ancient Greece) but in English was in use by at least
1899 and came from the smoking of semi-liquid opium preparations. The verb use in the sense of “administer a
drug to” appeared in print in 1889. The
idea of “insider information” was in use by at least 1901 and is thought to
come from the knowledge of knowing which horse in a race had been doped (thus
predicting it would run faster or slower than its form would suggest), this
sense dating from 1900. From this idea (inside
information) developed the US slang “to dope out” (figure out, clarify). The
sense of “an unintelligent person” may have been used as early as the 1840s and
came from the stupefying effects of opium, those intoxicated displaying obvious
impaired cognitive facilities. The word
was related to the English dip and the German taufen (to baptize) but not to dopamine which came from chemistry,
the construct being (DOPA (dihydroxyphenylalanine) + -amine.
Unlike some
constructions in English (eg domelessness (absence of a dome) or the informal
gaynessness (“excessive” gayness)), there seems no recorded use of dopnessness. For the commoly used “dopey”, the comparative
is dopier and the superlative dopiest.
The use of “doper” to describe both: (1) someone who administers dope
and (2) someone to whom dope is administered differs from the convention used
in many words in English (eg payer vs payee) so the non-standard noun dopee can
also be a synonym of doper. Presumably,
a useful distinction would be a dopee being one whose dope has been
administered by another while a doper is one who self-administers. Dope is a noun, verb & adjective, dopiness & dopeness are nouns, doper is a noun & adjective, doping is a noun &
verb, doped is a verb & adjective and dopey (sometimes spelled dopy (the
derived forms following this)) dopier & dopiest are adjectives, the noun
plural is dopes. Acronymfinder list eleven DOPEs, only two of which are narcotic related.
DOPE: Drug
Overdose Prevention and Education (various organizations).
DOPE: Department
of Public Enterprise.
DOPE: Data
on Personal Equipment (sniper rifle data logging).
DOPE: Death
or Prison Eventually (movie).
DOPE: Data
on Previous Engagement (military sniper term).
DOPE: Drugs
Oppress People Everyday.
DOPE: Dartmouth
Oversimplified Programming Experiment.
DOPE: Director
of Product Enhancements (Dilbert).
DOPE: Displacement
of breathing tube, Obstruction, Pneumothorax, Equipment failure.
DOPE: Data
Observed from Previous Engagements (ballistics).
DOPE: Director
of Performance Enhancement (New York Yankees).
The use by
the New York Yankees MLB (Major League Baseball) franchise seems daring given
the existence of the Independent Program Administrator (IPA) of the Joint Drug
Prevention and Treatment Program (JBTPT) which monitors the use of PEDs in the
sport. The JBTPT jointly is run by the
MLB and the MLBPA (Major League Baseball Players Association) and the IPA oversees
all drug testing, collection and enforcement. Pleasingly, the JBTPB often is referred to as the “Major League Joint Drug Program”.
Dilbert cartoon by Scott Adams, published in 1995 on Bastille Day (14 July).
First
published in 1989, the once widely-syndicated "corporate life" Dilbert cartoon strip dealt with engineers, programmers and such
working in a corporation run by those without a technical background, the
exemplar of the latter being the “pointy haired boss”. The cartoon was the work of Scott Adams (b
1957) who in 2023 was “cancelled” after posting a video in which he called “Black Americans”, critical of the slogan “It's okay to be white” because of its association
with white supremacist ideology, a “hate group”, suggesting “White Americans” should “get the hell away
from” them. Mr Adams later disavowed
racism and moved his output on-line.
On the Dilbert website, Mr Adams stated: “No news about
public figures is ever true and in context” and explained his
cancellation thus: “If you believe the news, it was because I am a big ol'
racist.” Fleshing that out,
he added: “If
you look into the context, the point that got me cancelled is that CRT
[Critical Race Theory], DEI [Diversity, Equity & Inclusion] and ESG
[Environmental, Social and Governance] all have in common the framing that White Americans are
historically the oppressors and Black Americans have been oppressed, and it
continues to this day. I recommended staying
away from any group of Americans that identifies your group as the bad guys,
because that puts a target on your back.
I was speaking hyperbolically, of course, because we Americans don't
have an option of staying away from each other. But it did get a lot of
attention, as I hoped. (More than I
planned, actually).” Dlibert
devotees prepared to separate art from artist were advised: “Disgraced and
canceled cartoonist Scott Adams has moved his work and upgraded it to a spicier
version entitled Dilbert Reborn.”
A "Dope Mobile Bookstore" is scheduled to go on-line in December 2025 and there really was briefly a "Dope Mobile" (left) which was an on-line store for mobile phone accessories and should not be confused with a "dopemobile" which is a "dope dealer's" car. Especially in black, a Chrysler 300 (2005-2023) is almost a cliché as a dopemobile and this 2009 model (on flatbed truck, right) was seized by New Zealand police from the estate of a deceased "dope dealer" (a profession with an unusually high death rate). The informal term "dopemoble" can mean either (1) a vehicle in which a "dope dealer" transacts "dope deals" or (2) a vehicle believed or proved to have been purchased using the proceeds of "dope dealing".
Purple Haze, Blue Cheese and more. The proprietors of Amsterdam’s coffee shops have always come up evocative and fanciful names for dope. One has to have the coffee one drinks and one has to have the weed one smokes.
In derived
terms and idiomatic use, “dope” appears often but because of the dual meaning
(narcotics and a varnish-like substance), the same term can mean very different
things so context must be noted when assessing a meaning. A “dope stick” (also as dopestick) can
describe (1) a stick or applicator for spreading dope (a viscous liquid or
paste used in preparing a surface) on a surface or, in slang (2) a cigar or cigarette,
(3) a pipe, (4) a marijuana joint or something similar laced with cocaine or
other drug or (5) a penis suffering from priapism (a condition in which the erect penis does not return to its flaccid
state despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation) as a result of the use of cocaine or heroin. The condition may sound desirable but is both potentially painful and risks long-term tissue
damage.
Color chart, circa 1940. Some of the pigments available for Berry Brothers "Berryloid Pigmented Dopes".
“Dope dick” (impotence induced by heavy
drinking or other substance abuse) is a synonym of other slang forms including “coke
dick”, “crystal dick”, “whisky dick” & “brewer's droop”. A “dope whore” is someone addicted to
narcotics who finances the habit through prostitution, the synonyms being “coke
whore”, “smack slut”, “crack whore” etc. To “smoke
one's own dope” means “to believe one’s own publicity, propaganda, lies or posturing;
the synonym is “to drink one's own Kool-Aid”.
For those who like to make such connections, Kool-Aid is the official
soft-drink of the US state of Nebraska, otherwise famous only for being the
home of billionaire investor Warren Buffett (b 1930). To “dope out” means “to figure out, to find
out, find, decipher”, something Mr Buffet certainly did of investing for profit
although wryly, he notes that often when folk ask him the “secret of his success” and he tells them how his strategy worked over decades,
there’s an obvious sense of disappointment because what people really want to
know is “how can I get rich overnight?” He assures all he doesn’t “have the dope” on that.
Punters dope sheet (form guide), 2024 Melbourne Cup.
A “dope
sheet” is a summary (ordinarily in the form of a codified, printed or digital document),
containing salient facts and background information concerning a person,
activity, or other subject matter. The
origin is thought to be the publications associated with horse racing (the name
derived from the suspicion the most accurate indicator of a horse’s performance
was whether or not it had been doped with some substance to make it run faster
or slower) in which was summarized information about the horses running in certain
races. Such publications are now known
variously as scratch sheets, tip sheets, firm guides, best bets etc. Beyond gambling, “dope sheets” (a term which
became misleading because some publications could be quite thick volumes) came
to be used in fields as varied as automotive repair and especially in photography,
film & animation; in the latter were listed the designer’s detailed
instructions for artists & editors (known also as an “exposure sheet”).
Lindsay Lohan gives CNN the dope on dope use during her "troubled starlet" phase.
In the world
of narcotics users (there really are many quite separate populations in “doperdom”)
dope is sold by a “dope dealer”, “dope-runner”, “dope-pedlar”, “dope-pusher”, “dope-seller”
or “dope-man”, sometimes from a “dope-house” whereas a “dopester” is a “street-level”
trader who may be operating independently but is typically an agent on commission
(paid sometimes “in kind”) and often operating from a "dopemobile"). Both
retailers sell to “dope fiends”, “dope chicks”, “dope heads” etc (those who
variously use or abuse) while a “dope dog” is a canine used by law enforcement
officers to “sniff-out” dope. The “dope
house” must however not be confused with the “dope-shop” which was the part of
the factory (typically one manufacturing aircraft) where dope was applied to the fabric laid
over the spars of an airframe. In the “dope
house” was employed the “doper” who applied the dope to the fabric (dated) and
again the meaning is shared with those involved with narcotics or PEDs. If the “dope deal” couldn't for whatever reason be executed, the
customer was left “dopeless” and those who over-consume could become “dope sick”
(in withdrawal from “dope use”) which is different from the potentially fatal “dope
overdose”. “Dope time” & “doper time”
both reference the way one’s perception of the passing of time changes when one
is under the influence of narcotics. It’s
along the lines of “country mile” (typically somewhat longer than 1760 yards)
or “Microsoft minutes” (referencing the dialog boxes which appeared in
MS-Windows during certain operations saying something like “17 minutes
remaining” which could mean anything from a few seconds to many hours).
The
title's play on words is this being “the dope” on “the dope trade” out of
Mexico. In the well-populated
sub-culture of narcotics use (illicit and not), there exists a bewildering
array of names, vernacular and slang, some now registered trade-marks as many
jurisdictions have relaxed the prohibition on “soft drugs’ but “dope” remains
the most useful generic “cover-all” term.
Nor is the use of “dope” as a generic new, Lord Moran (Charles Wilson,
1882-1977; president of the Royal College of Physicians 1941-1949, personal
physician (1940-1965) to Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister
1940-1945 & 1951-1955) in his diary (Churchill taken from the Diaries of
Lord Moran: The Struggle for Survival, 1940–1965 (1966)) noting on 2 December 1952,
during a trans-Atlantic flight:
“This may be my
last journey with Winston. We began life
humbly enough, in an unheated Lancaster bomber, and end it, twelve years later, in high state in the strato-cruiser Canopus.
Messages no longer pass to the captain asking at what height we are flying; 18,000
feet or 11,000 feet (both were recorded last night), it is all one to us,
pressurized at 5,000 feet. Most of the
seniors and quite a number of the juniors came to me last night for sleeping
pills - this weak kneed generation that needs dope for a few hours in the air.”
Boeing 377 Stratocruiser in United Airlines livery in 63-passenger configuration including sleeping berths, a state room and lounge bar.
Lord Moran was of course
well-acquainted with dope, having for years suppled Churchill with “downers” (barbiturates) to
help him sleep and “uppers” (amphetamines, then commonly called “pep pills”) to perk him up,
Churchill ignoring the apothecary’s descriptions and dubbing the various
tablets with terms from his own ad-hoc pharmacological vocabulary including “Lord
Morans”, “majors”, “minors”, “reds”, “greens”, “babies” and “midgets”, all based
either on the pill’s appearance or its potency, the latter established empirically. In
fairness to the Lord Moran's doped airline passengers, with a cruising speed (depending on
conditions) between 300–340 mph (480–550 km/h), trans-Atlantic flight time for
the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was typically 10 hours (eastbound) to 11-12 hours
(westbound), a duration compelling until the new generation of jetliners cut
the trip to 6–7 hours. A civilian
version of the C-97 Stratofreighter military heavy-transporter (developed from
the B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber), the Stratocruiser was, when its first
test-flight was undertaken in 1947, the world biggest airliner and could carry up
to 100 passengers in a multi-deck configuration although most were configured
for fewer and outfitted with the luxuries which appealed to the demographic
then able to afford to travel by air. Very modern when first it flew, there were no "doped fabric" surfaces on the Stratocruiser, the fuselage, wings and tail made almost wholly from an aluminum alloy (mostly duralumin); it was thus, in the parlance of the day, an "all metal" craft. However,
despite extensive development, the problems with the 28-cylinder Pratt &
Whitney radial engines were never wholly resolved and while they came to be
practical for military use, they remained maintenance-intensive so operating
costs were high and between 1949-1963 only 55 Stratocruisers were ever in
service.
Berry Brothers advertising (1929) of their Berryloid Pigmented Dope, illustrated by applying avian coloring to aircraft. This was Number 10 of the series and depicts the Mono Aircraft Corporation's Monocoupe, doped in the color scheme of the sexually dimorphic red winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). Only the males feature the distinctive red shoulder and yellow wing bar over black, the female's feathers a nondescript dark brown.
“Pipe dope”,
despite the name, is not used of the drug-smoking devices and refers to any of
the many lubricants and sealants used to make a pipe thread joint leak-proof
and pressure-tight. In US military
slang, a “scope dope” was the officer responsible for radar or a radar operator. The technical terms “photodope”, “photodoping”
& “photodoped” come from materials science and described the process of
removing a dopant (a substance added in small amounts to a pure material, such
as semiconductor, to alter its original electrical or optical properties). In electronics,
impurities are added to semiconductors as a way of (1) producing a desired
result or (2) modifying its properties. In
the tuning of stringed musical instruments, “peg dope” is a substance used to
lubricate the pegs of an instrument and to provide the desired friction
between pegs and strings. Use
seems not to have extended to other fields but conceivably it could be a
helpful (and even lucrative) product for those who enjoy the sexual practice of
“pegging” (women using “strap-ons”) an activity Urban Dictionary’s contributors
gleefully detail, there being many nuances in use.
Automotive Digest's Dope-Master (1948, left and 1951, right).
Annually updated, Automotive Digest for years published their "Dope Masters", containing the specifications and information (ie "all the dope") required to service or "tune up" most of the automobiles sold in the US. They were valued by mechanics but also used by many owners, cars then being mostly mechanical devices with some wiring so servicing at home with basis tools was possible in a way unthinkable with modern machines with their high electronic and software content. In boxing,
the phrase “rope-a-dope” described a technique in which the boxer assumes a
defensive stance against the ropes, absorbing an opponent's blows, hoping to
exploit eventual tiredness or a mistake. Figuratively,
use can be extended to any strategy in which a seemingly losing position is maintained to “lull an opponent into a false sense of security” in the hope of securing
eventual victory; in the vernacular, it’s to exhaust them by “stringing them
along”. “Dope slap” is a jocular term which
describes “a light slap to the back of the head”, used as a disciplinary measure for
some minor infraction (ie imposed for someone being "a bit dopey")
while a more severe corporal punishment would be imposed for a more a serious
offence. “Dope glass” (a synonym of “carnival
glass”) was a type of glassware dating from the early twentieth century, notable for
possessing lustrous colors. Known
variously as “aurora glass”, “iridescent ware”, “Iridill” “poor man's Tiffany”,
“rainbow glass” & “taffeta glass”, it was initially declared by the style
police to be attractive but, cheap and mass-produced, it soon came to be used to
make objects judged “not in the best taste” and, being much associated with the Great
Depression years of the 1930s (it was dubbed also “depression glass”), it became
unfashionable.
