trip [ME] The early Dutch word trippen ‘to skip, hop’ is the source of trip. The English word was initially used to describe not only stumbling by catching your foot on something, but also dancing and nimble movement. The noun meant ‘a light lively movement’ before it became ‘a short journey’ [L17th], originally a sailor’s term for a short sea journey. The sense ‘hallucinatory experience caused by taking a drug’ was first recorded in the late 1950s. See also fantastic.