dope

dope pronunciation

/dohp/

Meaning

In Appalachian and rural Southern speech, a dope is a bottled soda. Folks said get me a dope for a Coca-Cola or another flavored pop, sometimes with color tags like brown dope for cola. Textile mills even ran dope wagons selling snacks and cold drinks. Older talk also used dope for syrup or the sauce poured on ice cream. Outside that kitchen-and-store world, dope can mean a fool or drugs, so tone and company tell you which sense is meant.

How folks use it

• “I'm goin' to the store for a dope and a moon pie.”
• “He asked for a brown dope, meaning a cola.”

Origin and etymology

Tied to early Coca-Cola, which once had a coca leaf kick, so drinkers nicknamed the drink dope. By the early 1900s the word meant Coke or any carbonated pop across parts of the South and Appalachia. PBS Smokies notes and Blind Pig and the Acorn cite DARE and mountain glossaries for soft drink. Green’s Dictionary of Slang also records sauce-and-syrup senses. NC textile dope wagons sold the bottled kind to mill hands.

Frequently asked questions