• whippersnapper •
Printable Version 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.)
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!
