The term “pipe dream” may sound like the title of a Blue Man Group song or what the Nintendo character Mario thinks about while he’s sleeping, but according to Merriam-Webster, it refers to “an illusory or fantastic plan, hope, or story.” Let’s say that someone who has never been in a movie wants to earn fame as an Oscar-winning actor, or someone who has never played a sport has dreams of being an all-star athlete. While both of these goals are possible, they’re also improbable, and are thus considered pipe dreams.
This turn of phrase originated in the late 19th century, though at the time, it had a provocative connotation. It came from the dreamlike state people would fall into after smoking an opium pipe (the 1800s version of opiates). People who smoked opium often experienced hallucinations, and the thoughts in that trance were called “pipe dreams.”
The first-known usage of this phrase in print is in the 1870 book Tales of Life and Death by Grantley F. Berkeley, when a feverish character recalls “last night’s pipe-dream.” Skipping into the mainstream just a few decades later, in 1890, the Chicago Daily Tribune reported how aerial navigation “has been regarded as a pipe-dream for a good many years.” However, in this case, the pipe dream became a reality with the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903.
Today, the term rarely refers to drug use, as many countries around the world have long outlawed opium. Instead, “pipe dream” is simply an expression of the unlikely hope that someone’s far-fetched dreams will come true. However, stranger things have happened, and it’s sometimes worth keeping a cherished pipe dream alive.
