hippie

hippie
/hip"ee/, n.
a person, esp. of the late 1960s, who rejected established institutions and values and sought spontaneity, direct personal relations expressing love, and expanded consciousness, often expressed externally in the wearing of casual, folksy clothing and of beads, headbands, used garments, etc.
Also, hippy. Cf. flower child.
[1950-55, Amer.; HIP4 + -IE]

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also spelled  hippy 
 member, during the 1960s and 1970s, of a countercultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American life. The movement originated on college campuses in the United States, although it spread to other countries, including Canada and Britain. The name derived from “hip,” a term applied to the Beats (Beat movement) of the 1950s, such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who were generally considered to be the precursors of hippies. Although the movement arose in part as opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War (1955–75), hippies were often not directly engaged in politics, as opposed to their activist counterparts known as “Yippies” (Youth International Party).

      Hippies felt alienated from middle-class society, which they saw as dominated by materialism and repression, and they developed their own distinctive lifestyle. They favoured long hair and casual, often unconventional, dress, sometimes in “psychedelic” colours. Many males grew beards, and both men and women wore sandals and beads. Long, flowing granny dresses were popular with women, and rimless granny glasses with both men and women. Hippies commonly took up communal or cooperative living arrangements, and they often adopted vegetarian diets based on unprocessed foods and practiced holistic medicine. For many The Whole Earth Catalog, which first appeared in 1968, became a source for the necessities of life. Hippies tended to be dropouts from society, forgoing regular jobs and careers, although some developed small businesses that catered to other hippies.

      Hippies advocated nonviolence and love, a popular phrase being “Make love, not war,” for which they were sometimes called “flower children.” They promoted openness and tolerance as alternatives to the restrictions and regimentation they saw in middle-class society. Hippies often practiced open sexual relationships and lived in various types of family groups. They commonly sought spiritual guidance from sources outside the Judeo-Christian tradition, particularly Buddhism and other Eastern religions (religion), and sometimes in various combinations. Astrology was popular, and the period was often referred to as the Age of Aquarius. Hippies promoted the recreational use of hallucinogenic drugs (hallucinogen), particularly marijuana and LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), in so-called head trips, justifying the practice as a way of expanding consciousness.

      Both folk (folk music) and rock music were an integral part of hippie culture. Singers such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and groups such as the Beatles, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Rolling Stones were among those most closely identified with the movement. The musical Hair, a celebration of the hippie lifestyle, opened on Broadway in 1968, and the film Easy Rider, which reflected hippie values and aesthetics, appeared in 1969. The novelist Ken Kesey (Kesey, Ken) was one of the best-known literary spokesmen for the movement, but he became equally famous for the bus tours he made with a group called the Merry Pranksters.

      Public gatherings—part music festivals, sometimes protests, often simply excuses for celebrations of life—were an important part of the hippie movement. The first “be-in,” called the Gathering of the Tribes, was held in San Francisco in 1967. A three-day music festival known as Woodstock (Woodstock Music and Art Fair), held in rural New York state in 1969, drew an estimated 400,000–500,000 people and became virtually synonymous with the movement. Hippies participated in a number of teach-ins at colleges and universities in which opposition to the Vietnam War was explained, and they took part in antiwar protests and marches. They joined other protestors in the “moratorium”—a nationwide demonstration—against the war in 1969. They were involved in the development of the environmental movement (conservation). The first Earth Day was held in 1970.

      By the mid-1970s the movement had waned, and by the 1980s hippies had given way to a new generation of young people who were intent on making careers for themselves in business and who came to be known as yuppies (young urban professionals). Nonetheless, hippies continued to have an influence on the wider culture, seen, for example, in more relaxed attitudes toward sex, in the new concern for the environment, and in a widespread lessening of formality.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Hippie — Hippie …   Deutsch Wörterbuch

  • Hippie — móvil. Se llama hippie, hippy, jipi[1] a un movimiento contracultural nacido en los años 1960 en Estados Unidos, así como también a los seguidores de dicho movimiento. La palabra hippie deriva del inglés hi …   Wikipedia Español

  • hippie — [ ipi ] n. et adj. VAR. hippy • 1967; mot angl. amér., de hip « dans le vent » ♦ Anglic. Adepte (généralement jeune) d un mouvement des années 1970, fondé sur le refus de la société de consommation et des valeurs sociales et morales… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Hippie — Sm zumeist junger Mensch, der natürliches und friedfertiges Zusammenleben in der Art der Jugendbewegung der 60er/70er Jahre propagiert erw. grupp. (20. Jh.) Entlehnung. Entlehnt aus am. e. hippie, hippy, einer hypokoristischen Ableitung von am. e …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • *hippie — ● hippie ou hippy nom (américain hippy) Adepte d une morale fondée sur la non violence et l hostilité à la société industrielle, et d un mode de vie prônant la liberté dans tous les domaines, ainsi que la vie en communauté. (Le mouvement des… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Hippie — (ingl.; pronunc. [jípi]) adj. y n. Hippy. * * * hippie o hippy. (Voz ingl.). adj. Se dice del movimiento contracultural juvenil surgido en los Estados Unidos de América en la década de 1960 y caracterizado por su pacifismo y su actitud… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • hippie — hip pie n. Someone who rejects the established culture, dresses casually, and advocates extreme liberalism in politics and lifestyle. Used especially of those in the late 1960 s, mostly in their late teens and early twenties, who conspicuously… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • hippie — c.1965, American English (Haight Ashbury slang); earlier hippie, 1953, was a usually disparaging variant of hipster (1941) person who is keenly aware of the new and stylish, from hip up to date (see HIP (Cf. hip) (adj.)) …   Etymology dictionary

  • hippie — hippie, hippy → jipi …   Diccionario panhispánico de dudas

  • hippie — s. m. Diz se dos jovens que, pelo seu modo de vida boémia, o seu modo de vestir não conformista, a sua longa cabeleira e o uso frequente que fazem da droga, se opõem aos valores da sociedade. • Plural: hippies.   ‣ Etimologia: palavra americana …   Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa

  • hippie — [n] nonconformist beatnik, Bohemian, drop out, flower child, freak, free spirit, freethinker, yippie; concept 423 …   New thesaurus

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