D.O.P.E. is a Backronym 
D.O.P.E. is a Backronym
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D.O.P.E
is a Backronym
“Dope”, the physical substance,
came from an older Dutch word for soup. It came to
mean the drug to give to a horse (and later drugs used
by humans) or the glue used on fabric for airplane
wings. “Dope”/”Doping”, the verb, came
to mean the act of drugging the horse (or more
recently infusing molecules of another element into a
wafer of silicon in creating semiconductors). I read somewhere that in
racehorses, the handler who drugged the horse could
provide that reliable, secret, information. Picture a
black and white Film Noir movie with a character who
says something like “Hey Louie, what’s the dope on the
race tomorrow”. That is how “dope” came to mean
“secret, insider, information”. It was in this context of
“secret information” that I first heard and read high
power shooters refer to sight setting on their rifles
for a given distance or condition. “Put your wind dope
on before you go to the line.” Back in the 80’s when I
started shooting the word “dope” was used in that way
by older guys as though it had long been part of their
vocabulary and no one ever attempted to explain it.
Edward Crossman uses “dope” numerous times in that way
in his 1932 book “Military and Sporting Rifle
Shootiing”. The NRA's magazine "The American Rifleman"
has a column entitled "Dope Bag", in the fine print on
the bottom of the column indicates they have used this
term since 1921 or earlier and refers to the sack in
which competition shooters carried their ammunition
and accessories for the firing line and judging wind
speed and direction is called "doping the wind". I
suspect the word has been used since the earliest days
of Camp Perry in 1907, or even before. I NEVER heard any shooter
explain that the letters of “dope” – D. O. P. E. –
were an acronym, until I started watching YouTube
videos from PRS shooters… and it makes me cringe when
I hear “previous engagements”! A stage in a high power
rifle competition has never been referred to as an
“engagement” and English speaking people don’t say
“data on…” in such a context either, we would say
“data from…”. Shooters have been putting their
“dope” on their sights probably for 100 years…. Never
their “D.O.P.E.” A “backronym” is a series of
words that correspond to the letters of a common
naturally occurring word, usually created as a joke…
think: “My Ass Rides In Navy Equipment”, “Fornication
Under Consent (of the) King”, or “Stack High In
Transit”. “D.O.P.E.” is a backronym! Now give me a minute and a half
right and send it! |