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You are here: Home / Language / Where does the term “whippersnapper” come from and What does whippersnapper mean?

Where does the term “whippersnapper” come from and What does whippersnapper mean?

April 21, 2020 by Karen Hill

The word “whippersnapper” itself is merely a balanced extension of whip-snapper, “one who cracks a whip.”

Its use is most often in the sense of “one who cracks a whip loudly to make a fearsome noise because he himself would have no attention paid to him otherwise.”

In other words, “an insignificant, impudent nobody.”

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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