Volume 4, Number 8 · May 20, 1965
Hep Vs. Hip
By Robert S. Gold
In response to Swinging (May 6, 1965)
To the Editors:
Your recent correspondent, Cal Kolbe Nossiter, in attempting to correct Philip Rahv's nominal use of "hip" merely proliferates the error by identifying the term "hip" as a variant of "hep." Anyone familiar with the jazz scene (or anyone familiar with my recent dictionary of jazz slang, A Jazz Lexicon) knows that the word has always been "hip," and that "hep" is hopelessly square.
Robert S. Gold
Jersey City, New Jersey