Preppy

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Preppy (also spelled preppie) is a chiefly American adjective or noun traditionally used to describe the characteristics of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) who attend or attended major private, secondary university-preparatory schools. These characteristics include particular subcultural speech, vocabulary, accent, dress, mannerisms, etiquette, and life view. In 1980, Lisa Birnbach wrote the Official Preppy Handbook, a tongue-in-cheek guide to what she termed "prepdom." The term "preppy" is similar in formation to hippie or yuppie, and had great currency in the 1970s and 1980s. The term first reached a wide audience in the 1970 film Love Story, where Ali McGraw's character uses it as a derisive term of endearment.

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Current usage

The word preppie (or "preppy") has come to refer to people of a certain class, economic status, and ethnic origin, perhaps a term that includes only established New England WASP families. More generally, preppies are people who went to one of some two dozen college preparatory schools, preferably boarding schools, in New England; the prep school means more than the college subsequently attended, however prestigious the latter, but usually preppies have gone on to Ivy League universities or other elite East Coast colleges, "Little Ivies." A true preppie--or perhaps more aptly, the preppy ideal — is athletic, articulate, sociable, and devoted to maintaining a sunny outlook and correct opinions at all costs. A love of time-hallowed convention and ritual, and an abhorrence of anything suggesting ostentation, are central characteristics of Eastern preppies. An old Jeep (pre-Chrysler) or Volvo station wagon would be much more emblematic of the preppie style than a Lamborghini, say, or top-of-the-line luxury sedan; and the term "preppie" is associated, not with dramatic designer fashions, but with conservative clothing brands such as J. Press, Paul Stuart, Lacoste, Brooks Brothers, L.L. Bean, and Patagonia. A standard, makes-a-neat-appearance preppie uniform would be a navy blue blazer, button-down Oxford-cloth shirt, cuffed khakis, and cordovan loafers (well under $1000 in New Haven; Rolex not needed). Likely vacation spots would include Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, Kennebunkport, and certain other New England coast beaches, preferably in summer cottages kept in the family for generations and situated between neighbors one has known since the third form in prep school at least.

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Slang usage

In recent years, young people have begun to use the term "preppy" as slang to describe those who appear clean-cut or strive to seem slightly better off financially than others in an upper-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 mainstream meaning stated above, as the slang version most often describes 'nouveau riche', publically-educated people absorbed in the middle class hypermaterialistic pop culture pursuit of quality-made goods sold at prices for those who can pay for the best and most fashionable. As such, teenagers often apply this slang label to popular clothing not characteristic of "prepdom" such as the Gap and the current incarnation of Abercrombie & Fitch (prior to the original company's bankruptcy in 1977, it in fact was a prep staple). However, the "New England prep" and Ivy League image is still strongly associated with current use of the word. Abercrombie's clothes, for example, often reference lacrosse, rugby, and crew; sports typically linked with the outdoorsy New England lifestyle.

"Preppy" was also A.C. Slater's nickname for Zack Morris in the teen sitcom Saved by the Bell.

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Athletics

The following sports were cited in Lisa Birnbach's "Preppy Handbook":

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Drinks

The following liquor brands were cited to be "preppy" in Tipsy in Madras: Complete Guide to 80s Preppy Drinking:

  • Gin (Gilbey's, Gordons)
  • Rum (Mount Gay & Bacardi)
  • Scotch(Dewar's, J&B)
  • Whiskey (Jack Daniels & Jim Beam)
  • Vermouth (Martini and Rossi's)
  • Vodka (Gilbey's, Smirnoff, & Gordon's)
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Prep Schools

The following boarding schools were cited in Lisa Birnbach's "Preppy Handbook":

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Colleges and Universities

The "Top Ten Preppiest Student Bodies" according to the 2006 edition of the "Insider's Guide to Colleges" published by Yale Daily News.

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See also

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