I was surprised the other day to hear someone use whipper-snapper in a context that made it clear they thought it meant someone who is in a position to crack the whip. It is normally used to describe a cheeky boy, ‘A diminutive or insignificant person’ in the words of the OED, ‘especially a sprightly or impertinent young fellow’.
Clearly someone who can crack the whip with the authority only of his dreams.
And yet the OED guesses that the origin of the term lies in a ‘jingling extension of whip-snapper, a cracker of whips.’
It seems obvious that the word derives from the hunting fraternity – & was applied to the sort of cheeky young pup of a hound who attempted to defy the authority of the whipper-in (a huntsman's assistant who keeps the hounds from straying by driving them with the whip) by trying to nip or snap his ankles.
Or so it has always seemed to me - can't remember if I was ever taught this, or just assumed it from the context.
But it was quite common in my childhood - used mostly it seemed by older, often old, men.
'Now then, young whipper-snapper, enough of that.'
It always seemed to imply affection, even a kind of respect:Yes he's young, he's cheeky, but there's something about him, he'll learn.
