Yuppie
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Yuppie is a neologism derived from "Young Urban Professional". It is a term that is often used to describe a certain demographic pejoratively, with connotations of selfishness, materialism, and superficiality.
Syndicated newspaper columnist Bob Greene is generally credited with having stolen the term "Yuppie" in one of his columns in the early 1980s, plagiarizing Alice Kahn who famously wrote about them in the East Bay Express in 1982, but the first known citation of the word is in a 13 May 1981 article entitled "Chicago: City on the brink" by R. C. Longworth in the Chicago Tribune. [1]
The word came into widespread use during the Gary Hart presidential campaign of 1984 as a neutral demographic descriptor for socially liberal and fiscally conservative voters who favored his candidacy. Newsweek magazine declared 1984 The year of the yuppie. Soon afterward the term lost its political connotations and gained negative connotations.
The term is also used in the British comedy Only Fools and Horses, especially in the later episodes, where Dell is known as one.
Related terms
- Buppie is a black urban professional.
- yuppification in place of the word gentrification but with similarly negative connotations.
- DINKs (also DINKY in the UK) are well-off couples who often have much in common with "yuppies". The label is an acronym for Dual Income, No Kids [Yet].
- Yuppie Flu is a term formerly applied to Chronic fatigue syndrome, before that condition's general acceptance as a genuine medical problem.
- David Brooks characterized yuppies as bourgeois bohemians, or Bobos, in his book Bobos in Paradise. (Aka Trustifarians.)
- Guppie A gay urban professional.
See also
References
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