After much debate, and no more than the usual Gawker-esque snarkiness, Fauxhemians has won out as the new nickname for hipsters. At 34 percent, there’s still room for debate over coffee or homemade beer in Williamsburg.
But this raises another important semantic topic. Where did that ubiquitous term of endearment and scorn “hipster” come from? It’s probably older than you think. Jack Kerouac has been called a hipster, as has Norman Mailer. Urban dictionary gives seven different definitions – some of which (“someone who uses an unnecessarily large academic vocabulary”) are pretty vague. Last year, a panel, “What was the hipster?” foretold the death of young, urban coolness after a 100-year reign.
None of this is very satisfying. Perhaps we should get answers before this rare Brooklyn-based breed really does go extinct.
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