hypo

Clipping of various terms beginning with hypo-, from Ancient Greek ὑπό (hupó, “under”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhaɪ.pəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhaɪ.poʊ/

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -aɪpəʊ

hypo (countable and uncountable, plural hypos)

1. (obsolete) Melancholy; a fit of hypochondria; a morbid depression.
   • 1711 "I have a better Stomach tha usuall and have perfectly forgot what the Hyppo means",Joseph Collett, merchant, writing from Rio de Janeiro, Oct 15, 1711, in his Private Letter Books, edited by H. H. Dodwell in 1933. (cited by Eric Partidge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventinoal English
   • 1837 Abraham Lincoln: Tell your sister I dont want to hear any more about selling out and moving. That gives me the hypo whenever I think of it. (Letter to Mary S. Owens, May 7. 1837, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 1.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:

     whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. (Chapter 1, "Loomings")
     But thou sayest, methinks that white-lead chapter about whiteness is but a white flag hung out from a craven soul; thou surrenderest to a hypo, Ishmael. (Chapter 42, "The Whiteness of the Whale")

2. (slang) A hypochondriac.
   • 1953, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, General Exchange Insurance Corporation, Motors Insurance Corporation, News and Views, page 30:

     Certainly no one can accuse a bunch of hypos of lying dormant during the noon-hour. The activity, inside and out, is simply terrific. To us, personally, by far the most interesting group of hypochondriacs in attendance at this particular emporium […]

3. (photography, informal) Sodium thiosulfate (also called hyposulfite of soda), a photographic fixing agent.
4. (slang) A hypoglycaemia attack in a person with diabetes.
5. (slang) A hypodermic syringe or injection.
6. (slang, finance, British) Hypothecation.
7. (informal, law) A hypothetical case.
8. (informal, zoology) A hypomelanistic snake.

hypo (third-person singular simple present hypos, present participle hypoing, simple past and past participle hypoed)

1. (intransitive, slang) To have a hypoglycaemia attack.
   • 2019, Charlotte Bates, quoting Alice, Vital Bodies: Living with Illness, Bristol: Policy Press, →ISBN, page unknown:

     My top lip tingles, and I'm clearly hypoing but I don't know what my sugar level is, it was 9.8 when I went to bed, which is fine. I've hypoed a lot lately.

2. (transitive) To administer a hypodermic injection to.
   • 1956, Clifford Simak, Strangers in the Universe, New York: Simon and Schuster, page 113:

     Bacterium and virus count—as usual. Lots of it. Apparently not too dangerous. Not with every single soul hypoed and immunized and hormoned to his eyebrows.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To stimulate or boost, as if by administering a hypodermic injection. (Compare hype.)
   • 1964 February 29, Jack Maher, “Beatles Bug As They Command Air”, in Billboard, volume 76, number 9, page 8:

     Stations across the country hypoed the Beatle excitement with offers of fan club cards, free records. Beatle contests of all sorts, and a continual push on the Capitol, Swan, Vee Jay and MGM releases by the group.

4. (transitive, economics) To stimulate or boost (the economy) by the injection of cash, such as with quantitative easing
   • 1971, Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, volume 29, page 1727:

     In the last three peacetime years before the Vietnam War expenditures began to hypo the economy, 1961, 1962, and 1963, unemployment in those years averaged six percent.

• hypo-