Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US, also aitch) hell, usu. in phr. e.g. what the H, what in the aitch.

1862		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd series (1880) 17: An’ give the nigger (when he’s caught) [...] a most H fired lickin’.
1890		Sporting Times 12 Apr. 2/1: He wanted to know what the H three stars I wanted there.
1915		R.D. Doughty diary 19 July 🌐 Good old round scrap last night. Didn’t we give them something. The aerial torpedoes played particular ‘H’.
1922		R. Lardner ‘Caddy’s Diary’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 400: Mr Doane [...] aint such a H of a man himself tho dirty with money.
1947		J. Archibald ‘When a Body Meets a Body’ in Popular Detective Sept. 🌐 This beats the aitch outa me, pals.
1949		J. Archibald ‘State Penmanship’ Popular Detective Jan. 🌐 Well, what in the aitch do you want, Klump?
1964		I. Chein et al. Road to H 3: ‘H’ is for hell.

2. (drugs, also aitch, Big H, the H) heroin.

1920		F. Williams Hop-Heads 23: A lot of us didn’t really know what heroin—sniff H—was, until after it was too late.
1924		Truth (Brisbane) 22 June 12/5: ‘In my experience, nine out of 10 use cocaine or heroin, or ‘C’ and ‘H’ as the professional slang goes.
1937		Marijuana: Weed with Roots in Hell [film script] The way your marijuana customers are hooked on the stronger stuff such as H and C you’ll soon be getting rich.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 213: I’ve seen ’em hittin C, I’ve seen ’em hittin’ M, I’ve seen ’em hittin’ the H ’n I’ve seen ’em shootin’ speedballs—half a cap of C ’n half a cap of H together.
1955		Q. Reynolds Police Headquarters (1956) 269: I saw the Seniors who were skinpoppers taking their shots. And one of them dared me again to try the H.
1960		C. Himes Big Gold Dream 93: I happened to remember that Rufus was on the H.
1963		‘Geoffrey Tolhurst’ Flat 4 King’s Cross (1966) 111: ‘It’s ‘H’,’ he said. ‘H’?’ I asked stupidly. ‘Heroin. Snow. Whatever you like to call it’.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 117: The man certainly didn’t fit the Chelsea H elite.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 115: ‘That damn H will make you do some funny things [...] And I was pretty high’.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Ed Leary’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 124: He told me he had first started using heroin or H while in the Army.
1987		(con. 1970s) J. Pistone Donnie Brasco (2006) 306: Everybody is using the horse up there. When you gonna know about the H?
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 3: He’d have twenty-odd pounds of Big H working for him. [Ibid.] 37: He was [...] staking the Malibu Rendezvous parking lot: eyes on two ‘H’ pushers in a Packard sedan.
1991		D. Widgery Some Lives! 147: I pass the dealer’s house [...] every night and H makes the video more interesting.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 17: They sucked up to Castro. They bought ‘H’ off Brother Raúl.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 83/1: H abbr. 1 heroin, a Class A drug derived from the milk of the opium poppy.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 155: What you need, papi? H or coke? I got D and C, aw’right?
2023		F. Bill Back to the Dirt 78: [B]usted for slinging dope, black tar, H, Night Train.

3. a hypodermic syringe.

1953

Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 309: H. Heroin. Also a hypodermic needle.