Originally a thick liquid or paste; now commonly means illegal drugs or as slang for something excellent or cool. Can also mean a stupid person or information.
From Dutch 'doop' meaning 'sauce' or 'dip', originally referring to a thick liquid. The drug meaning emerged in the early 1900s, while the slang meaning 'cool' or 'excellent' developed in hip-hop culture in the 1980s.
The word 'dope' has undergone one of the most dramatic semantic shifts in English, going from describing a thick sauce to illegal drugs to a positive slang term meaning 'awesome.' In aviation, 'dope' refers to a chemical treatment applied to fabric aircraft surfaces to make them taut and waterproof, showing how specialized technical meanings can coexist with popular slang.
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