Entry from June 30, 2005
Yuppie
"Yuppie" (young urban professional) is still used in New York. The term became a sensation in 1984. However, it appears that "yuppie" did not originate in New York.
"Yuppies flood the lakefront, but it takes families to save a city" was written by Dan Rottenberg for Chicago (IL) magazine, May 1, 1980.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
yuppie
A jocular term for a member of a socio-economic group comprising young professional people working in cities. Also attrib. Cf. YUMPIE.
1984 PIESMAN & HARTLEY (title) The yuppie handbook.
1984 [see YUMPIE]. 1984 Times 21 Mar. 14/2 A new term has been introduced into the American political lexicon... It is 'Yuppie', which stands for Young, urban professional people.
1984 Observer 8 Apr. 12/1 We have got to break this yuppie image.
1984 Guardian 22 Oct. 6/6 The yuppies themselves, in the 25-34 age group, supported Senator Gary Hart in the primaries.
1984 Washington Post 29 Mar. Va1/5 The two yuppy, upwardly mobile professional capitals of Virginia.
1985 Investors Chron. 8-14 Nov. 8/1 It also announced that it will change its name to Nextthe yuppy clothes-chain responsible for its meteoric rise.
Hence yuppi(e)ness; yuppyish a.
1984 N.Y. Times 28 May 22/6 Yuppiness depends on the prestige of gaining; happiness on the satisfaction of giving.
1986 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 8 Jan. 5/4 There is a serious side to yuppieness, as advertisers are discovering.
1986 Financial Times 22 Apr. 25/1 There is nothing yuppyish about the Folkes Group.
1987 Athletics Today Apr. 33/1 The area, fast becoming the hot-bed of 'Yuppiness', was first vacated several years ago when the ships left London's docks.
1988 Fortune 15 Feb. 124/3 This declaration points to upscale yuppyish types plainly able to afford $100 a week.
Chicago magazine
About That Urban Renaissance…
… there’ll be a slight delay.
Yuppies flood the lakefront, but it takes families to save a city.
BY DAN ROTTENBERG
PUBLISHED MAY 1, 1980, AT 3:07 P.M.
(...)
Well, something is occurring in Chicago, or at least in the fashionable lakefront neighborhoods that so many observers (including, God knows, this magazine) often seem to confuse with the city as a whole. Real-estate prices have skyrocketed. Lofts and townhouses are being rehabilitated. Some 20,000 new dwelling units have been built within two miles of the Loop over the past ten years to accommodate the rising tide of “Yuppies"—young urban professionals rebelling against the stodgy suburban lifestyles of their parents. The Yuppies seek neither comfort nor security, but stimulation, and they can find that only in the densest sections of the city.
13 May 1981, Chicago (IL) Tribune, "Chicago: City on the brink" by R. C. Longworth, pg. 1:
It's almost a cliche to say that Chicago is a collection of neighborhoods. Some are rich and healthy - Beverly with its mostly white population, Pill Hill with its mostly black professionals, Lincoln Park with its Yuppies (Young Urban Professionals).
June 1982, Commentary, Joseph Epstein article, pg. 61:
His [John Irving's] novels exert their greatest pull on those people who are undecided about growing up; they are college-educated, getting on and even getting up in the world, but with a bit of the hippie-dippie counterculture clinging to them still - yuppies, they have been called, the initials YUP standing for young urban professionals.
Chicago magazine
The Yuppie Turns 35
Decades after he helped change our lexicon, a longtime editor and urban observer reflects on what makes a healthy city. (Hint: walkable streets, good schools, and affordable housing.)
BY LUKE SEEMANN
JUNE 3, 2015 AT 1:34 P.M.
(...)
You don’t claim to have coined it. You’re just the first to have used it in print. Who do you give the credit to?
(Dan Rottenberg -- ed.) A lot of people have said to me, “Why don’t you just claim that you made it up?” And I guess I could but I didn’t. I’m a journalist and I heard other people using that expression. Who exactly made it up I really don’t know. I would love to take credit for it, and I have coined other expressions in my career, but not that one.
"Yuppies flood the lakefront, but it takes families to save a city" was written by Dan Rottenberg for Chicago (IL) magazine, May 1, 1980.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
yuppie
A jocular term for a member of a socio-economic group comprising young professional people working in cities. Also attrib. Cf. YUMPIE.
1984 PIESMAN & HARTLEY (title) The yuppie handbook.
1984 [see YUMPIE]. 1984 Times 21 Mar. 14/2 A new term has been introduced into the American political lexicon... It is 'Yuppie', which stands for Young, urban professional people.
1984 Observer 8 Apr. 12/1 We have got to break this yuppie image.
1984 Guardian 22 Oct. 6/6 The yuppies themselves, in the 25-34 age group, supported Senator Gary Hart in the primaries.
1984 Washington Post 29 Mar. Va1/5 The two yuppy, upwardly mobile professional capitals of Virginia.
1985 Investors Chron. 8-14 Nov. 8/1 It also announced that it will change its name to Nextthe yuppy clothes-chain responsible for its meteoric rise.
Hence yuppi(e)ness; yuppyish a.
1984 N.Y. Times 28 May 22/6 Yuppiness depends on the prestige of gaining; happiness on the satisfaction of giving.
1986 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 8 Jan. 5/4 There is a serious side to yuppieness, as advertisers are discovering.
1986 Financial Times 22 Apr. 25/1 There is nothing yuppyish about the Folkes Group.
1987 Athletics Today Apr. 33/1 The area, fast becoming the hot-bed of 'Yuppiness', was first vacated several years ago when the ships left London's docks.
1988 Fortune 15 Feb. 124/3 This declaration points to upscale yuppyish types plainly able to afford $100 a week.
Chicago magazine
About That Urban Renaissance…
… there’ll be a slight delay.
Yuppies flood the lakefront, but it takes families to save a city.
BY DAN ROTTENBERG
PUBLISHED MAY 1, 1980, AT 3:07 P.M.
(...)
Well, something is occurring in Chicago, or at least in the fashionable lakefront neighborhoods that so many observers (including, God knows, this magazine) often seem to confuse with the city as a whole. Real-estate prices have skyrocketed. Lofts and townhouses are being rehabilitated. Some 20,000 new dwelling units have been built within two miles of the Loop over the past ten years to accommodate the rising tide of “Yuppies"—young urban professionals rebelling against the stodgy suburban lifestyles of their parents. The Yuppies seek neither comfort nor security, but stimulation, and they can find that only in the densest sections of the city.
13 May 1981, Chicago (IL) Tribune, "Chicago: City on the brink" by R. C. Longworth, pg. 1:
It's almost a cliche to say that Chicago is a collection of neighborhoods. Some are rich and healthy - Beverly with its mostly white population, Pill Hill with its mostly black professionals, Lincoln Park with its Yuppies (Young Urban Professionals).
June 1982, Commentary, Joseph Epstein article, pg. 61:
His [John Irving's] novels exert their greatest pull on those people who are undecided about growing up; they are college-educated, getting on and even getting up in the world, but with a bit of the hippie-dippie counterculture clinging to them still - yuppies, they have been called, the initials YUP standing for young urban professionals.
Chicago magazine
The Yuppie Turns 35
Decades after he helped change our lexicon, a longtime editor and urban observer reflects on what makes a healthy city. (Hint: walkable streets, good schools, and affordable housing.)
BY LUKE SEEMANN
JUNE 3, 2015 AT 1:34 P.M.
(...)
You don’t claim to have coined it. You’re just the first to have used it in print. Who do you give the credit to?
(Dan Rottenberg -- ed.) A lot of people have said to me, “Why don’t you just claim that you made it up?” And I guess I could but I didn’t. I’m a journalist and I heard other people using that expression. Who exactly made it up I really don’t know. I would love to take credit for it, and I have coined other expressions in my career, but not that one.
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.