whippersnapper
a disrespectful person
TRANSLATION
whippersnapper = Frechdachs, Jungspund, Knirps, Gernegroß, junger Spund, Grünschnabel
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
When Blair was first elected in 1997, Chirac was already 64, a veteran of French and world politics who had been prime minister while Blair was an Oxford undergraduate. “At first Chirac was a bit wary”, recalls a former Downing Street aide, “he was the international statesman, and here was this young WHIPPERSNAPPER".
Martin Kettle - The Guardian
Did you
know?
whippersnapper
noun
- a young person who is too confident and shows no respect towards other, especially older people
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
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ORIGIN
The origin of whippersnapper is a bit of a mystery, but may stem from “whip snapper”, a term used for young layabouts who once stood around on street corners and snapped whips to idle away the time.
Christopher Marlowe mentions ‘snipper snapper’ in his 1604 edition of The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus.
Whippersnappers are typically boys or young men, although literature has given us the occasional female such as Pippi Longstocking.
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SYNONYMS
brat, dandiprat, half-pint, jackanapes, miscreant, person of no account, pipsqueak, punk, rascal, small fry, scamp, small potato, smart aleck, snippersnapper, squirt, twerp, WHIPPERSNAPPER, young upstart
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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:
“I knew several WHIPPERSNAPPERS who eventually matured into very decent people.”
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THANKS to Victoria for suggesting today’s OWAD
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Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40
