About This Blog: "To Cry Wolof" is a recently coined term used to describe amateur etymologists who make unfounded claims as to the origin of a word or phrase simply due to their phonetic similarity. A pun on the idiom "to cry wolf," it was named for the assertion, now widely considered to be false, that the term "hip" or "hip-cat" used by jazz musicians and beatniks in the early 19th century is derived from the word "hepicat," a word which in the West African language Wolof means "one who has his eyes open." None of this has anything to do with the post other than the fact that I am interested in etymology and hipsters annoy me. Enjoy.
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