yuppie

American  

[yuhp-ee] / ˈyʌp i /

Or yuppy

noun

yuppies plural

1. (often initial capital letter) a young, ambitious, and well-educated city-dweller who has a professional career and an affluent lifestyle.

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yuppie British  

/ ˈjʌpɪ /

noun

1. an affluent young professional person

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adjective

1. typical of or reflecting the values characteristic of yuppies

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• yuppiedom
  noun

Inflected Forms

noun

• yuppies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of yuppie

First recorded in 1980–85, y(oung) u(rban) p(rofessional) + -ie

Explanation

If your brother calls you a yuppie, it's not a compliment, but it does mean that he sees you as a well-paid, professional adult. In the mid-1980's, people started using the derogatory term yuppie to talk about a particular group of middle-class, well-educated workers. Yuppies are distinguished by their disposable income and the things on which they choose to spend it, like clothes, food, and cars. Yuppie is a shortened form of "young urban professional," and its popularity won out over other acronyms of the time, "yumpie," for "young upwardly mobile professional, and "yap," for "young aspiring professional."

Example Sentences

Mr. Buffett came into the national imagination in the 1970s, just in time to become a counterpoint to what would end up being called the Yuppie generation.

From New York Times • Feb. 8, 2018

Yes, the Yippie was gradually morphing into the Yuppie.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 31, 2017

Within a year, Die Yuppie Scum was not only a graffiti standard but was also a T-shirt, and “Meet me in Tompkins Square” was a refrain in a Lou Reed song.

From Slate • Aug. 9, 2017

Which is not to say that he won’t suddenly turn on a private voice or vanish inside a Marin County Yuppie for a spell.

From Newsweek

They represent a party that is an alliance of many fractious tribes�"from Yuppie to lunch pail," as Mondale said in San Francisco.

From Time Magazine Archive