• whippersnapper •
Pronunciation: hwi-pêr-snæ-pêr • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A feisty, snippy, combative person.
Notes: This word offers little for us to explore. It is a lexical orphan and an oddity that does not lend itself to further derivation. If I were to use it as a noun, I would choose whippersnappery—and not be the first to do so; it currently occurs 101 times on the Web. This word is usually associated with youth: it most frequently occurs in the phrase young whippersnapper. Age apparently mellows whippersnappers, which might be a good thing.
In Play: As mentioned above, whippersnappery seems to be the domain of the young: "That young whippersnapper over there just called me an old fogey!" Some of you might take umbrage at the suggestion that we lose our whippersnappery as we age: "Hey guys, some old whippersnapper just broke my middle finger!"
Word History: Today's Good Word is a jingle variation of whip-snapper "a cracker of whips", influence by dialectal snippersnapper "a conceited, insignificant fellow". We love compounds that are rhyming jingles, such as namby-pamby, shilly-shally, wishy-washy, willy-nilly, roly-poly, to name a few. Whippersnapper is another member of this playful group. (Today's Good Word comes from Rachel Keller, otherwise known as Pooky Zoo in the Alpha Agora.)
WHIPPERSNAPPER
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• The Good Dr. Goodword
Great word to describe BD:
"You, young whippersnapper!"
(In reference to his phenomenal ability to catch even the most trivial "mole-hill" of a grammar mistake and make a mountain out of it.)
Apo
"You, young whippersnapper!"
(In reference to his phenomenal ability to catch even the most trivial "mole-hill" of a grammar mistake and make a mountain out of it.)
Apo
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Yes, Henry! (Hey, hello!) Whippersnapper definitely applies to (young-er) males only. I have never heard it applied to a (young) woman. And, yes, it is very old-fashioned, but one does hear it upon occasion.
What might bring it to mind would be a boy who somehow tricked you out of something with his cleverness, or made you look the fool.
It is esp. jocular in present-day speech!
Apo
What might bring it to mind would be a boy who somehow tricked you out of something with his cleverness, or made you look the fool.
It is esp. jocular in present-day speech!
Apo
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck
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