If a friend came up to you after class and told you about a "tripppy" experience would you understand what he or she meant?  Most likely any student today would understand that his or her friend witnessed something odd.  If you were to tell your mother or father about a "trippy" experience would he or she understand what you meant?  Most likely not; The new slang usage for the word trip evolved rapidly in the last ten years, so the new and widely used meaning seems only understood among the younger generations.  The meanings for trip began to change in the 1960's and 1970's but frequent use began 5 to 10 years ago.  After researching the original usage of the word trip, the new usage of the word, a comparison and contrast of the new usage to other slang terms, and even the tone and facial expressions accompanied with the new definition it is easy to see the evolution of the word trip.  It also becomes very apparent how wide spread the new usage is and how popular it is becoming in everyday conversation.
 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, popular usage of the word trip began in the early 1600's and meant the act of moving lightly and quickly. This usage of the word remained popular in both speech and writing through the mid 1800's.  Other definitions began to form in the later part of the 1600's(OED).  These definitions included a short trip or journey, or to run by either ship or foot.  Both of these definitions are still used today but are accompanied by other popular definitions.

         Almost all parts of speech contain a form of trip.  For example, it can be a noun, a verb, or an adjective.  Trip, in its noun form, means a journey from one place to another.  "I took a trip" would be the most popular noun usage.  Furthermore, trip means a blunder or foolish mistake.  It is also a verb, to trip or tripping, which means the act of stumbling.  "To trip" is often used in place of  "to stumble", which means to miss a step in walking.  "He stumbled while walking down the street" has the same meaning as "He tripped while walking down the street."  The same phrase, to trip, can be used to express the act of releasing a mechanical devise.  An example of this, "to trip a switch," means to activate a switch or same mechanical part.  To take a trip, the actual action of moving from one place to another and often times acts like a verb.  You can go on an ego trip without even leaving your home.  An ego trip, according to WWWebster Dictionary, is an act or course of action that enhances and satisfies one's ego.   You make someone trip by placing an object, normally your own foot, in front of him or her so they stumble or fall.  This act is called tripping someone.  Often time people will catch their foot on an object and trip themselves.  A popular phrase to describe someone doing this is "tripping over his or her own two feet."  Not only can you trip while walking; you can trip while talking.  If someone stumbles in articulation when speaking, you could say they tripped or got tripped up (WWWebsters). Finally, trip in the form of an adjective, describes someone.  If he or she is a trip they act wild or crazy.  This way of describing someone appears frequently in speech and writing today.

         Among these many proper definitions for the word trip, many new slang definitions exist in the English language.  Around the 1960's trip started to represent a hallucinatory experience induced by drugs, normally LSD.  An early example of this usage appears in Science America's September 1971 issue, "One of the volunteers had a bad trip, entering a panicky an nearly psychotic state."  Usage of LSD makes the world seem distorted and odd. The relationship between the drug experience and the word trip is what most likely created the many new usage of the word today.  In today's standards trip can be used to describe anything weird, odd, or different.  The noun form of trip is a hallucinatory experience brought about by drugs.  To trip, in slang verb form, describes the actual taking of drugs.  "Do you want to trip?" means, "do you want to take the drug LSD?"  Trippy, a slang form of trip often used in speech today, possesses no proper meaning in an English dictionary.  It explains any incident not normal to you or others. Trip, whether used to express the distortion of reality, or someone not normal in society's standards, means anything weird, odd or not normal.

         Trip and its new definition can be compared to several other slang terms. An example of these are the terms "whacked" or "messed up", which have similar meanings to trippy.  Both are used to explain bizarre situations that are not seen everyday.  If a car served to miss a deer and almost hit you, you could express your disbelief with either of the three phrases "that was whacked," "that was messed up," or "that was trippy."  Any of these three phrases would easily get the point across that you just witnessed an odd experience.

         Trip's slang definition can easily be contrasted with any phrase meaning normal.  Normal means anything usual, typical, conventional or regular. Anyone deemed normal acts mentally stable, sane and "all there."  "All there" when used to describe someone that contrasts the slang meaning of trippy.  Someone trippy acts odd and not always mentally healthy. Furthermore, someone who is a trip is crazy or fun loving.  Often times these people don't appear "all there."  Another phrase contrasting trippy, "no big deal," expresses the fact that the occurrence is not strange or odd to them.  This directly contrasts the phrase "that is trippy."

         Another aspect of the two phrases that differs is the tone in which the two phrases are expressed.  "That's no big deal," normally expressed with a calm tone, sounds extremely different than "that was trippy," which normally gets said with a more shocked or astonished tone.  This difference in tone happens due to the fact that something trippy is not commonly seen or heard.  When saying something was trippy, you emphasize the word trippy to help get your point across that something peculiar happened.  Along with the particular tone that accompanies trippy, facial gestures also exist when saying the word.  When your telling a story and use trippy to explain a certain experience your face looks shocked.  Even though you know what occurred you use this facial expression to help reinforce your point.  When telling a truly trippy story, you want the person your telling to feel shocked, much like when the occurrence happened to you.  These new definitions from the last twenty or thirty years, most verbalized by kids in their teens or early twenties, continue to grow in popularity. If you go up to a person in their thirties or older and told them the trippiest thing happened today they most likely would not understand you.  The vast new usage of the slang meanings and the rapidness in which their popularity grew make them terms normally only understood by younger generations and the ones about to come.  The slang usage will most likely only increase in popularity once the definitions become better defined and more exact.

          Trip is a word that has been around for hundreds of years and the new uses of the word will most likely grow in popularity for hundreds of more. Once the slang terms are better defined they will be more widely excepted. The new terms are much like other terms in language today and will most likely grow to replace the proper definitions for trip from the past.