yuppie: [20] Yuppie is an acronym, formed in the USA from the initial letters of ‘young urban professional’. It came on the scene in 1984, and at first competed with yumpie (formed from ‘young upwardly mobile people’). It was yuppie which won out, and indeed has thrived to such an extent as to produce a whole range of (more or less ephemeral) clones such as buppie ‘black yuppie’, guppie ‘green [ecologically concerned] yuppie’, and Juppie ‘Japanese yuppie’.
yuppie (n.)
1982, acronym from "young urban professional," ousting competition from yumpie (1984), from "young upward-mobile professional," and yap (1984), from "young aspiring professional." The word was felt as an insult by 1985.
