Preppy, also spelled preppie, is a chiefly North American adjective or noun traditionally used to describe the characteristics of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) attitudes. Such individuals commonly attend or attended major private, secondary university-preparatory schools commonly associated with the northeastern United States. These characteristics include particular subcultural speech, vocabulary, accent, dress, mannerisms, etiquette, and entitled life view. The term "preppy" is similar in formation to hippie or yuppie, both of which movements influenced the former, and had great currency in the 1970s and 1980s. The term first reached a wide audience in the 1970 film Love Story, where Ali MacGraw's character uses it as a derisive term of endearment.
The more recent slang derivation prep has taken on an often derogatory meaning, associated not with any particular race, community or schools. Especially as used by young people, "prep" more generally denotes superficiality and preoccupation with the appearance and wealth; see slang usage below.
Current Usage
The word preppie (or "preppy") has come to refer to people of a certain class, economic status, and ethnic origin. In particular, it is used to describe people from established WASP families, and is controversial due to its exclusion of people from other backgrounds.
More generally, preppies are people who attended elite college preparatory schools, often boarding schools. Interestingly, the prep school attended is sometimes given more weight than the college subsequently attended, however prestigious the latter. Nevertheless, preppies traditionally go on to some of the nation's top colleges and universities. It is worth noting that a school's eliteness or cost does not necessarily mean that is a preppy college. Preppy culture idealizes aestheticism, athleticism, sociability and wealth. The culture also emphasizes deference to business and fashion.
Fashion-wise, the term "preppy" is associated not with dramatic designer fashions, but with conservative clothing and accessory brands such as Lacoste, Brooks Brothers, L.L. Bean, J.Crew, J. Press, Polo Ralph Lauren, Vineyard Vines, Tod's, Barbour, Vera Bradley, Lilly Pulitzer, CK Bradley, North Face, and Patagonia. An example of preppy attire would be a button-down Oxford cloth shirt, cuffed khakis, and cordovan loafers.
"Where do you summer?" is a quintessential prep questoin, as where preppies vacation is equally important to their status as where they primarily live. Vacations are an essential aspect of the authentic preppy lifestyle, the most important and prestigious vacation spots include; Cabo San Lucas, South Padre Island, Mount Desert Island, Palm Beach, Millbrook, NY, The Greenbrier, Harbour Island, Newport, RI, Quogue, Nantucket, Henlopen Acres, Bay Head, Little Compton, RI, Martha's Vineyard, Hyannisport, Kennebunkport, certain other East Coast beaches, and anywhere overseas, often in summer cottages kept in the family for generations and situated between neighbors one has known for some time.
Slang usage
In recent years, young people have begun to use the term "preppy," often shortened to "prep" as a noun, as slang to describe those who seem better off financially or class-wise than others in a middle class environment. In most regions, especially amongst young people, this usage has virtually replaced the traditional meaning of the word. Used in this manner, "preppy" is often applied contrary to the term's original meaning stated above, as the slang version most often describes publicly-educated people absorbed in the middle class hypermaterialistic pop culture pursuit of ostensibly quality-made goods sold at prices for those who can pay for the best and most fashionable, and are 'obsessed' with clothes and shopping. As such, teenagers often apply this slang label to popular clothing not characteristic of "prepdom" like Banana Republic, Club Monaco, Hollister Co., American Eagle, Abercrombie and Fitch, The Gap, Express Men, Aeropostale, Killer Loop, and H&M.
In 1980, American Jewish author and private school, but not boarding school, alumna Lisa Birnbach[1] notice wrote the Official Preppy Handbook, a tongue-in-cheek guide to what she termed "prepdom." Though intended as satire, it is widely adhered to as a guidebook by those who embrace the latter interpretation of preppy fashion.
Athletics
The following sports were cited in Lisa Birnbach's Preppy Handbook:
Drinks
The Official Preppy Handbook notes the Bloody Mary to be the favored mixed drink amongst preppies.
The following liquor brands were cited to be "preppy" in an unofficial sequel to The Official Preppy Handbook, Tipsy in Madras:
See also
External links
- ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5DB1F3BF93AA25754C0A961948260 Lisa Birnbach New York Times marriage (reference for biographical information)