Joseph Dale <jdale1729@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
+---------------
| "The straight dope" is a term, and I understand it to mean "the real
| information, without any lies or BS".
+---------------
Something like that.
+---------------
| This is likely to be derived from the drug context, where
| "straight dope" would refer to pure, unadultered material.
+---------------
Sorry, "dope" as "(reliable) information" long pre-dates the
current drug sub-culture. Check out any WW2-era movie for some
then-current usage, e.g., "Hey, Joe, did you talk to Sarge?
What's the dope on our mission?
+---------------
| Which could be rephrased, mixing in the semiconductor metaphor,
| as "dope with no dope".
+---------------
Probably not. The semiconductor metaphor indeed probably derives
from the *medical* [though not originally "druggie"] slang for
medication (e.g., "Has he been doped yet?"), but "dope vectors"
comes from the earlier, pure meaning of "information".
-Rob
-----
Rob Warnock, PP-ASEL-IA <rpw3@rpw3.org>
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