Other forms: hipsters
A hipster is somebody who follows the latest alternative fashions. A bearded hipster.
Nobody calls themselves one, which is the defining feature of the word. The name meant a jazz enthusiast in the 1940s before it meant anything about beards.
1nounhipsterSomebody who follows the latest alternative fashions.
“The whole street filled with hipster cafes in about two years.”
hipster is a person.
Hip plus -ster; the word meant a jazz enthusiast in the 1940s before its modern use.
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱewb-
Proto-Germanic
*hupiz
Old English
hype
Middle English
hipe
English
hip
English, today
hipster
Built from
From hip + -ster. First attested for someone carrying something on their hip in the U.S. in the 1920s. Attested as a variant of hepster in the 1940s, for a follower of the latest fashions/trends/styles. hip comes from Middle English hipe, hupe, from Old English hype, from Proto-Germanic hupiz (compare Dutch heup, Low German Huop, German Hüfte), from Proto-Indo-European ḱewb- (compare Welsh cysgu (“to sleep”), Latin cubāre (“to lie”), Ancient Greek κύβος (“hollow in the hips”), Albanian sup (“shoulder”), Sanskrit शुप्ति (“shoulder”)), from ḱew- (“to bend”). More at high. The sense "drug addict" derives from addicts lying on their hips while using certain drugs such as opium.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA