Q: I’ve been hearing the word “hopium” used for an imaginary opiate taken to achieve unrealistic optimism, and “copium” used for one taken to endure hard times. I don’t see them in my dictionary. Are they legit?
A: Well, one standard dictionary, Collins, recognizes both “hopium” and “copium” while another, Merriam-Webster, recognizes only “copium.” Both dictionaries label these terms slang—that is, informal nonstandard usages.
Collins describes “hopium” as a blend of the words “hope” and “opium,” while it describes “copium” as a blend of “cope” and “opium.” Here are the dictionary’s definitions:
Hopium: “a substance said to have been ingested by those who maintain an unrealistically optimistic outlook.”
Copium: “a substance said to have been ingested by those who remain unduly optimistic in the face of defeat or disappointment.”
Are they legit? Well, we’ll coin a slang term of our own to describe “hopium” and “copium” as maybe-ums. We like slang and often use it in informal speech and writing, but only if our audience is likely to understand.
The oldest of these two satirical terms for imaginary opiates, “hopium,” first appeared in the 19th century, but as far as we can tell it didn’t show up again in that sense until the late 20th century.
In the earliest example we’ve seen, a British satirical weekly (The Tomahawk, May 28, 1870) uses the term in mocking an anti-opiate movement:
“It is possible that Sir Wilfred Lawson may head a great Ante-opiate Movement, the object of which will be to get all people afflicted with toothache to pledge themselves to abstain from laudanum. It will, of course, be marshalled under the title of The Band of Hope-ium!”
The next appearance that we know of is from a book about the 1978 mass suicide and murder of Jim Jones and members of his Peoples Temple religious cult at Jonestown in Guyana:
“This was the practical God in distinction to Sky Gods, Spooks, Buzzard Gods, and the unknown God worshipped by those who were addicted to the ‘hopium’ of myth” (Salvation and Suicide: An Interpretation of Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and Jonestown, 1988, by David Chidester).
The usage began appearing more frequently in the early 21st century, perhaps influenced by the “Hope” poster used in Barrack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
In “Hopium helps you forget several unpleasant facts,” the headline on a column by John Kass in the Chicago Tribune (July 30, 2008), the term is used satirically for the enthusiasm of Obama’s supporters.
As for “copium,” Merriam-Webster describes the term in a “Slang & Trending” feature on its website as “an Internet taunt for a delusional loser,” and has this expansive definition:
“Copium is a slang term for denial or rationalization in the face of defeat or failure. It is presented as a metaphorical drug people take when dealing with losing a game or otherwise being disappointed.”
As M-W explains, “The implication of copium is that, rather than honestly accept defeat, someone deals (copes) with it by numbing their pain through denial or the like (as if taking opium).”
The dictionary says “various people probably coined copium independently in the 2000s.” The earliest example we’ve seen is from Copium, a 2003 album by the Oakland, CA, rapper Kreak da Sneak.
We listened to track 6, entitled “Copium,” to find out how the term was used, but the only words we could make out were the numerous “motherfuckers” (and variant forms). We were unable to find a transcription of the lyrics online.
The linguist Ben Zimmer says the title “Copium” here stands for “Counting Other People’s Money” (“Among the New Words,” American Speech, May 2022).
The title on most physical versions of the album is “COPIUM” (all caps), while the title on some others is “Counting Other People’s Money.”
In July 2019, the word appeared in a meme on a 4chan forum with an image of the Internet character Pepe the Frog breathing with a mask and tube from a tank labeled “copium.”
The meme was used at first to put down political losers who refused to accept defeat. It later came to mean irrational optimism to cope with any kind of disappointment or defeat.
Finally, here’s the image of Pepe, blissed out on copium:
Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation. And check out our books about the English language and more.