1980S MARKETING SECTOR ACRONYMS
BUPPIE - Black Upwardly-mobile/Urban Professional
DINKY - Double/Dual Income, No Kids (Yet)
FILTH - Failed In London, Try Hong-Kong.
GASP - Gay, Affluent, Sans Progeny
GROLLI - Guardian Reader of Low/Lunatic Level Intelligence
GUPPIE - Green Upwardly-mobile/Urban Professional
HOPEFUL - Hard-up Old Person Enjoying Full Useful Life
JUPPIE - Japanese Upwardly-mobile/Urban Professional
KIPPERS - Kids In Parents' Pockets Exhausting Retirement Savings
LOLITS: UK: Little Old Ladies In Twin-Sets (middle class 50-60 year olds); US: Little Old Ladies In Tennis Shoes (active over 60s)
LOMBARD - Lots Of Money But A Real Dick (or Right Dickhead)
NED - Non Educated Delinquent
NEDDY - Non Educated Delinquent, Dosser and Yob
NIMBY - Not in My Back Yard
Also: NOTE - Not Over There, Either
Also: BANANA - Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone
PIPPIE - Person Inheriting Parents' Property
PUPPIE - Poxy/Poncey Upwardly-mobile Professional
SCRUMMY - School Run Mummy (non-working mother with school-age children)
SILKY - Single Income, Loads of Kids
SINBAD - Single Income, No Bird/Boyfriend And/Absolutely Desperate
SITCOM - Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage
TEETH - Tried Everything Else, Try Homeopathy (a hypochondriac/health nut)
TOMCAT - Totally Obedient Moron, Cannot Actually Think
WASP - White Anglo Saxon Protestant
WOOPIE - Well-Off Older Person
YUPPIE - Young Urban Professional or Young Upwardly-Mobile Professional
MORE RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LEXICON
CHAV - Council House And Violent (see note below)
Notes:
See also: Medical Acronyms and Doctors' Slang for other labels for peopleYuppie and its derivatives are often 'yuppy' (etc) in the UK. The 'y' or 'ie' suffix often marks an affectionate, playful or diminutive form of a proper noun in English. Yuppie, (or yuppy) was a North American word which entered Britain in the mid-1980s. It meant meaning well-educated young adults, living in cities, working in well-paid occupations, and enjoying a fashionable lifestyle. Yuppy was fashionable in the UK in the mid 1980s boom during the Thatcher years and was associated with rapid career progress and financial success. In the recession of the early 1990s, yuppy gained mildly derogatory/abusive overtones and fell into disuse. SITCOM is what happens to yuppies when they marry and one stays home to care for the 2 children; the single income no longer supports the affluent lifestyle.
DINKY was originally used to describe gay couples, but was extended to cover other cohabiting heterosexual couples as "Double Income No Kids Yet". GASP filled the void when DINKY included heterosexuals.
SILKY has a Trailer Trash or Benefit Scrounger connotation i.e. living on welfare, not interested in being employed. CHAV has connotations of rough, dishonest and trashy.
Chav is variously said to be derived from chavi (Romany for child), charver (Romany for prostitute), Chatham, or "Chatham Average" (a place in Kent where the term is prevalent), Chat (a promiscuous Chatham girl) or chaff (the unwanted part of grain); the acronym meaning was retro-fitted to the word.