Blog Schedule

I post on Monday with an occasional random blog thrown in for good measure. I do my best to answer all comments via email and visit around on the days I post.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Origins - Whippersnapper

Last time we looked into the origin of fuddy-duddy. So it only stands to reason that we should learn a little bit about the word whippersnapper.

It was all new to me.

Image by  Nelipot at Cheeseburger.com

The word whippersnapper (as you probably know) describes a young person who is impertinent, lazy, and who lacks motivation. One usually hears it coming out of the mouth of an old fuddy-duddy.

What does snapping a whip have to do with being lazy, when cracking the whip has to do with demanding obedience?

Apparently, back in the 17th century there were young men who were ne'er do wells. To pass the time they loitered around on street corners and idly snapped whips.

It didn't take long for people to start calling them whippersnappers.      



Synonyms include:
a nobody, a nothing, boldface, brat, brazenface, chutzpanik, cipher, common man, dummy,
elf, enfant terrible, figurehead, gamin, holy terror, hussy, imp, jackstraw, juvenile delinquent, lightweight,
little fellow, little guy, little monkey, malapert, man of straw, minx, nebbish, ne'er do well, nonentity, nullity, pip-squeak, puck, punk, punk kid, pup, puppy, runt, saucebox, scrub, shrimp, small fry, small potato, small potatoes, smart aleck, smart-ass, smarty, smarty-pants, spoiled brat, squirt, squit, swaggerer, upstart, urchin, whiffet, wise guy, wise-ass, zero, zilch

You can learn a bit more about whippersnapper here.

Got any whippersnappers in your home?
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

9 comments:

  1. Sarah TokeleyOctober 13, 2011 at 3:08 AM

    My two are not whippersnappers thank goodness. In fact, they put me to shame :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alex J. CavanaughOctober 13, 2011 at 8:00 AM

    Interesting! Fortunate for me, no whippersnapper or otherwise here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MG HigginsOctober 13, 2011 at 10:06 AM

    That's fascinating--guys standing around snapping whips. Who knew? No whippersnappers in my house, unless I count the whip-flinging cat.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yat-YeeOctober 13, 2011 at 10:32 AM

    Huh. I had no idea. I have always wondered about the whip snapping, which always struck me as being the opposite of what it means.

    Love the pic.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tere KirklandOctober 13, 2011 at 10:37 AM

    Ah, I love etymology! Always so enlightening. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Vicki RochoOctober 13, 2011 at 12:53 PM

    I never knew that! Now I gotta go find fuddy duddy...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lynda R Young as Elle CardyOctober 13, 2011 at 4:40 PM

    That's so cool! I love learning the origin of words.

    ReplyDelete
  8. VijayaOctober 13, 2011 at 7:27 PM

    Funny, but I never thought that a whippersnapper was someone who was lazy or unmotivated. Impertinent, smart, sassy ... gee, what do I know. I'm just a young whippersnapper myself :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Suzanne CasamentoOctober 15, 2011 at 4:22 PM

    No whippersnappers here! ;)

    ReplyDelete

Your Random Thoughts are most welcome!

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)