copium

English

Etymology

Blend of cope (“delusion, coping mechanism”) +‎ opium. First cited usage points back to the album entitled Copium released by American rapper Keak da Sneak in 2003. The term was popularized in 2020 by a reaction image of Pepe the Frog hooked up to a gas cylinder labeled "copium". Sometimes reanalyzed as cope +‎ -ium.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkoʊp.i.əm/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkəʊp.i.əm/
• Rhymes: -əʊpiəm

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

copium (uncountable)

1. (Internet slang, originally 4chan) A metaphorical opiate taken in order to cope with loss or disillusionment, often leading to one becoming detached from reality and in denial of their situation.

   Cryptobros have been huffing copious amounts of copium after yesterday's devastating Bitcoin crash.

   • 2003 June 17, Keak da Sneak, (album name):

     Copium

   • 2020 November 9, Gita Jackson, “Coping MAGA Tweets Are Funny, But We Need to Move Beyond 4chan Culture”, in VICE‎^[1], archived from the original on 2023-05-12:

     If the image of Democratic defeat is of that protester screaming no, the image of MAGA humiliation is of Pepe the Frog or Trump himself hooked up to an oxygen machine that's instead providing him with copium, watching the rare and humiliating end of a one-term president.

   • 2020 December 20, Jason Wilson, “Sky News Australia is increasingly pushing conspiracy theories to a global audience online”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-08-10:

     Some of this is simply dead ender-claptrap: straw-grasping and copium for Trumpists who are struggling to assimilate the new reality. But some of it is racist conspiracy theory, and Sky's new business model means that Australia is effectively exporting it.

   • 2022 May 11, Matthew Gault, “Crypto Is Collapsing (For Now)”, in VICE‎^[3], archived from the original on 2023-05-13:

     Some days I think that maybe we're not all gonna make it. It's been a bad week for cryptocurrency, and as of this recording, it's only Tuesday. Bitcoin is down. Ethereum's down. Stablecoin seems not so stable. The NFT market is tanking. There's copium all around, panicked posters, and soothing souls advising everyone to buy the dip.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:copium.

Related terms

• hopeium
• Ukropium

 

See also

• wishcasting
• wishful thinking