See hepcat in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "hep",
"3": "cat"
},
"expansion": "hep + cat",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From hep + cat, from hep (“sophisticated, aware”). Compare cat (“jazz enthusiast”). Attested in the sense of “sophisticated person” from the 1920s.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "hepcats",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
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"args": {},
"expansion": "hepcat (plural hepcats)",
"name": "en-noun"
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "beatnik"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "bebopper"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "cool cat"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Music",
"orig": "en:Music",
"parents": [
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"Sound",
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"Energy",
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"source": "w"
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{
"_dis": "56 1 43",
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"name": "People",
"orig": "en:People",
"parents": [
"Human",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A jazz performer, especially one from the 1940s and 1950s."
],
"id": "en-hepcat-en-noun-Se4aPnLz",
"links": [
[
"music",
"music"
],
[
"jazz",
"jazz"
],
[
"performer",
"performer"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, music) A jazz performer, especially one from the 1940s and 1950s."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
],
"topics": [
"entertainment",
"lifestyle",
"music"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "26 68 6",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
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"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "28 68 4",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "20 77 3",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "35 46 19",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Musicians",
"orig": "en:Musicians",
"parents": [
"Music",
"Occupations",
"Art",
"Sound",
"People",
"Work",
"Culture",
"Energy",
"Human",
"Human activity",
"Society",
"Nature",
"All topics",
"Human behaviour",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1943 May 9, Orlando Suero, “Jive, as a Hep-Cat Hears it”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "Everybody is asking, Why is Harry such a solid sender? Well, hear my version. As you are seated or are trying to stay seated you feel that sensation that hits every hep-cat. First your feet get the sensation, then it runs up your leg and you start to keep time to the music with your feet and you feel like getting up and jiving to that fine music that comes out of the magic trumpet of Harry James.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1943 June 20, John Desmond, “Making Catnip for the Hepcats”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "Leaders of the eight or nine name dance bands, who can throw a cordon of jitterbugging youths around any big city's theatre on a half hour's notice, are not complaining aloud these days, but privately they admit that “government competition” is having a lot to do with their ability to get it hot or sweet to suit the mood of the hepcats.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person associated with the jazz subculture of the 1940s and 1950s."
],
"id": "en-hepcat-en-noun-gITCL1Z2",
"links": [
[
"humorous",
"humorous"
],
[
"subculture",
"subculture"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, dated, now often humorous) A person associated with the jazz subculture of the 1940s and 1950s."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "hepster"
}
],
"tags": [
"dated",
"humorous",
"informal",
"often"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1965, Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels, page 177:",
"text": "Finally the door opens and out comes Alex Aums in a sharp blue suit, like a hepcat, cigarette in mouth, squinting at us narrow-eyed, “O there you are,” to me, “how’ve you been? Wont^([sic]) you come in?” indicating the office.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2016 August 14, Ross Douthat, “A Playboy for President”, in The New York Times:",
"text": "Today he’s just a sleazy oldster, but in the beginning he was a faux philosopher, preaching a gospel cribbed from bohemia and various Freudian enemies of repression, in which the blessed pursuit of promiscuity was the human birthright. But really a male birthright, for a certain kind of man: The sort of hep cat who loved inviting the ladies back to his pad “for a quiet discussion on Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex.”",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A sophisticated person, one who is stylish."
],
"id": "en-hepcat-en-noun-DBWfSFjb",
"links": [
[
"sophisticated",
"sophisticated"
],
[
"stylish",
"stylish"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, dated) A sophisticated person, one who is stylish."
],
"tags": [
"dated",
"informal"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "hep cat"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "hep-cat"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Green's Dictionary of Slang"
],
"word": "hepcat"
}
{
"categories": [
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"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"en:Musicians",
"en:People"
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
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"1": "en",
"2": "hep",
"3": "cat"
},
"expansion": "hep + cat",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From hep + cat, from hep (“sophisticated, aware”). Compare cat (“jazz enthusiast”). Attested in the sense of “sophisticated person” from the 1920s.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "hepcats",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "hepcat (plural hepcats)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "beatnik"
},
{
"word": "bebopper"
},
{
"word": "cool cat"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English informal terms",
"en:Music"
],
"glosses": [
"A jazz performer, especially one from the 1940s and 1950s."
],
"links": [
[
"music",
"music"
],
[
"jazz",
"jazz"
],
[
"performer",
"performer"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, music) A jazz performer, especially one from the 1940s and 1950s."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
],
"topics": [
"entertainment",
"lifestyle",
"music"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English dated terms",
"English humorous terms",
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1943 May 9, Orlando Suero, “Jive, as a Hep-Cat Hears it”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "Everybody is asking, Why is Harry such a solid sender? Well, hear my version. As you are seated or are trying to stay seated you feel that sensation that hits every hep-cat. First your feet get the sensation, then it runs up your leg and you start to keep time to the music with your feet and you feel like getting up and jiving to that fine music that comes out of the magic trumpet of Harry James.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1943 June 20, John Desmond, “Making Catnip for the Hepcats”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "Leaders of the eight or nine name dance bands, who can throw a cordon of jitterbugging youths around any big city's theatre on a half hour's notice, are not complaining aloud these days, but privately they admit that “government competition” is having a lot to do with their ability to get it hot or sweet to suit the mood of the hepcats.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person associated with the jazz subculture of the 1940s and 1950s."
],
"links": [
[
"humorous",
"humorous"
],
[
"subculture",
"subculture"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, dated, now often humorous) A person associated with the jazz subculture of the 1940s and 1950s."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "hepster"
}
],
"tags": [
"dated",
"humorous",
"informal",
"often"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English dated terms",
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1965, Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels, page 177:",
"text": "Finally the door opens and out comes Alex Aums in a sharp blue suit, like a hepcat, cigarette in mouth, squinting at us narrow-eyed, “O there you are,” to me, “how’ve you been? Wont^([sic]) you come in?” indicating the office.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2016 August 14, Ross Douthat, “A Playboy for President”, in The New York Times:",
"text": "Today he’s just a sleazy oldster, but in the beginning he was a faux philosopher, preaching a gospel cribbed from bohemia and various Freudian enemies of repression, in which the blessed pursuit of promiscuity was the human birthright. But really a male birthright, for a certain kind of man: The sort of hep cat who loved inviting the ladies back to his pad “for a quiet discussion on Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex.”",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A sophisticated person, one who is stylish."
],
"links": [
[
"sophisticated",
"sophisticated"
],
[
"stylish",
"stylish"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, dated) A sophisticated person, one who is stylish."
],
"tags": [
"dated",
"informal"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "hep cat"
},
{
"word": "hep-cat"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Green's Dictionary of Slang"
],
"word": "hepcat"
}
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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