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The American English word dope was coined in 1807, meaning "sauce, gravy, thick liquid", from the Dutch word doop, meaning "thick dipping sauce". It acquired its extension to a slang word for a "drug" in 1889, thanks to the practice of smoking a semi-liquid opium preparation. Dope-fiend and dopey are noted by various dictionaries to have come into use around 1896.

There are later slang uses of the word that also became very popular: In the modern era, "dope" became a common slang word for drugs, especially for marijuana, but later for other drugs. And in hip-hop, it became a common slang word for something really impressive: a rapper who was talented was said to spin out some "dope rhymes."

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13y ago

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