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

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.”