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Hello, Reader.
If your family includes millennials and Gen Z-ers, you’ve probably heard one word thrown around a lot: “hype.” They use it to talk about something exciting, energetic, or highly anticipated.
But between the 1910s and 1920s, long before it entered the lexicon of youthful enthusiasm, hype referred to the grift a con man might use to swindle or overcharge customers.
And by 1967, the meaning had evolved to signify “excessive or misleading publicity or advertising.”
