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hype

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Hype
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hype

1  [hahyp] verb, hyped, hyp⋅ing, noun Informal.
Use hype in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to stimulate, excite, or agitate (usually fol. by up): She was hyped up at the thought of owning her own car.
2. to create interest in by flamboyant or dramatic methods; promote or publicize showily: a promoter who knows how to hype a prizefight.
3. to intensify (advertising, promotion, or publicity) by ingenious or questionable claims, methods, etc. (usually fol. by up).
4. to trick; gull.
–noun
5. exaggerated publicity; hoopla.
6. an ingenious or questionable claim, method, etc., used in advertising, promotion, or publicity to intensify the effect.
7. a swindle, deception, or trick.
Origin:
1925–30, Americanism; in sense “to trick, swindle,” of uncert. orig.; subsequent senses perh. by reanalysis as a shortening of hyperbole

hype

2  [hahyp]
–noun Slang.
1. a hypodermic needle.
2. a drug addict, esp. one who uses a hypodermic needle.
Origin:
shortening of hypodermic; cf. hypo 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To hype
hype 1   (hīp)   
n.  
  1. Excessive publicity and the ensuing commotion: the hype surrounding the murder trial.
  2. Exaggerated or extravagant claims made especially in advertising or promotional material: "It is pure hype, a gigantic PR job" (Saturday Review).
  3. An advertising or promotional ploy: "Some restaurant owners in town are cooking up a $75,000 hype to promote New York as 'Restaurant City, U.S.A.'" (New York).
  4. Something deliberately misleading; a deception: "[He] says that there isn't any energy crisis at all, that it's all a hype, to maintain outrageous profits for the oil companies" (Joel Oppenheimer).
tr.v.   hyped, hyp·ing, hypes
To publicize or promote, especially by extravagant, inflated, or misleading claims: hyped the new book by sending its author on a promotional tour.

[Partly from hype, a swindle (perhaps from hyper-) and partly from hype(rbole).]
hype 2   (hīp)   
n.  
  1. A hypodermic injection, syringe, or needle.
  2. A drug addict.
tr.v.   hyped, hyp·ing, hypes
To stimulate with or as if with a hypodermic injection: "hyped the country up to a purposeless pitch" (Newsweek).

[Shortening and alteration of hypodermic.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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hype  (n.)
"excessive or misleading publicity or advertising," 1967, Amer.Eng. (the verb is attested from 1937), probably in part a back-formation of hyperbole, but also from underworld slang sense "swindle by overcharging or short-changing" (1926), a back-formation of hyper "short-change con man" (1914), from prefix hyper- meaning "over, to excess." Also possibly influenced by drug addicts' slang hype, 1913 shortening of hypodermic needle. In early 18c., hyp "morbid depression of the spirits" was colloquial for hypochondria (usually as the hyp or the hyps).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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