The first balloon which carried passengers used hot air to obtain buoyancy and was built by the brothers Josef and Etienne Montgolfier in Annonay, France in the first passenger flight was carrying a sheep, a duck, and a rooster.

The first tethered manned balloon flight was by a larger Montgolfier balloon, probably on 15 October 1783. The first free balloon flight was by the same Montgolfier balloon on 21 November 1783.

A man-carrying balloon using the light gas hydrogen for buoyancy was made by Professor Jacques Charles and flown less than a month after the Montgolfier flight, on 1 December 1783. Gas balloons have greater lift for a given volume, so they do not need to be so large, and they can also stay up for much longer than hot air, so gas balloons dominated ballooning for the next 200 years. In the 19th century, it was common to use town gas to fill balloons; this was not as light as pure hydrogen gas, having about half the lifting power, but it was much cheaper and readily available.

A section of a Yew branch showing 27 annual growth rings, pale sapwood, dark heartwood, and pith (center dark spot). The dark radial lines are small knots. Heartwood (or duramen) is wood that as a result of a naturally occurring chemical transformation has become more resistant to decay. Heartwood formation occurs spontaneously (it is a genetically programmed process). Once heartwood formation is complete, the heartwood is dead. Some uncertainty still exists as to whether heartwood is truly dead, as it can still chemically react to decay organisms, but only once.

Heartwood is often visually distinct from the living sapwood, and can be distinguished in a cross-section where the boundary will tend to follow the growth rings. For example, it is sometimes much darker. However, other processes such as decay or insect invasion can also discolor wood, even in woody plants that do not form heartwood, which may lead to confusion.

The term in its current usage first appeared in the 1990s and became particularly prominent in the 2010s, being derived from the term used to describe earlier movements in the 1940s. Members of the subculture typically do not self-identify as hipsters, and the word hipster is often used as a pejorative to describe someone who is pretentious, overly trendy or effete. Some analysts contend that the notion of the contemporary hipster is actually a myth created by marketing.

Although the adjective’s exact origins are disputed, some say it was a derivative of „hop“, a slang term for opium, while others believe it comes from the West African word hipi, meaning „to open one’s eyes“. Another argument suggests the term derives from the practice of lying on one’s hip while smoking opium. The ultimate meaning of „hip“, attested as early as 1902, is „aware“ or „in the know“. Conversely, the antonym unhip connotes those who are unaware of their surroundings, also including those who are opposed to hipness.

Nevertheless, „hip“ eventually acquired the common English suffix -ster (as in spinster and gangster), and „hipster“ entered the language. The first dictionary to list the word is the short glossary „For Characters Who Don’t Dig Jive Talk“, which was included with Harry Gibson’s 1944 album, Boogie Woogie In Blue. The entry for „hipsters“ defined them as „characters who like hot jazz“. It was not a complete glossary of jive, however, as it included only jive expressions that were found in the lyrics to his songs.