Antedating of "Yuppie"

[Baker, John]

The New York Times has this apparent variant from 9/28/1980:
 
"Mr. [Arthur] Miller himself speaks in the voice of his characters, despite having acquired certain characteristics of the country squire in the years since he moved to a renovated 1740 farmhouse on a hillside in Roxbury, Connecticut. . . . Delighted by rural life, Mr. Miller is what another writer who lives in the neighborhood refers to as a "yupper <https://webmail.stradley.com/Exchange/JBAKER/Drafts/RE:%20%20%20%20%20%20Antedating%20of%20%22Yuppie%22.EML/1_text.htm#I> " - a refugee from New York who mingles easily with the local populace."
 
The article does not further define "yupper," and Arthur Miller by this time was 64, making his status as a young urban professional somewhat questionable.  However, I see that Urban Dictionary does include a definition for "yupper" as "A young city or suburban resident with a well-paid professional job and an affluent lifestyle," and that sounds a lot like a yuppie.
 
 
John Baker


________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Sat 12/27/2008 5:37 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Antedating of "Yuppie"



OED's first use of _yuppie_ is dated 1984.  Barry Popik has pushed the word back to a 1981 occurrence in the Chicago Tribune.  An earlier citation is asserted by Wikipedia:

Dan Rottenberg (May 1980). "About that urban renaissance.... there'll be a slight delay", Chicago Magazine, p. 154ff.

I have not verified the 1980 cite in the original, although the Chicago provenance seems quite plausible.

Fred Shapiro



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Fred R. Shapiro                                            Editor
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  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
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