hipster

Word family

• hip
  adjectiveC1
• hipsterism
  nounC2
• hippie
  nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words describe people who care about being current, but they differ in tone and what they care about. A 'hipster' specifically chases niche or alternative styles — vinyl records, single-origin coffee, vintage clothes — and the label often carries a teasing edge, hinting the person tries too hard to seem cool. A 'trendsetter' is the most positive of the four: they actively start trends that others later follow, and the word implies real influence. A 'scenester' is tied to a local music, art, or nightlife scene; the word emphasises social presence in that scene more than personal style. A 'fashionista' is narrowly about clothes and high fashion, not lifestyle or music. So a Brooklyn DJ in thrift-store cardigans is a hipster; a designer whose work shows on Milan runways is a trendsetter; the regular at every Williamsburg gig is a scenester; the editor who knows every couture house is a fashionista.

Common collocations

Etymology

'Hipster' grew out of 'hip', an early-twentieth-century African-American slang adjective meaning 'aware, in the know', especially about jazz music. By the 1940s, 'hipster' described jazz fans who were deeply tuned into the scene; the meaning broadened in the 1950s through Beat-generation writing, and by the 2000s settled on the modern sense of a young adult chasing niche, alternative trends. The clothing sense (low-rise trousers and underwear) developed separately in the 1960s, riding on 'hip' the body part rather than 'hip' the slang adjective — a homonym overlap that the modern dictionary inherits.