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 commonly associated with New England and the northeastern United States. 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 MacGraw's character uses it as a derisive term of endearment.

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. 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 athleticism and sociability. The culture also emphasizes deference to tradition and ritual and, generally speaking, disapproval of ostentation. The term "preppie" is associated, not with dramatic designer fashions, but with conservative clothing brands such as The Andover Shop, J. Press, Paul Stuart, J.Crew, Lacoste, Pringle of Scotland, Brooks Brothers, L.L. Bean, Polo Ralph Lauren, Vineyard Vines, Lilly Pulitzer, CK Bradley and Patagonia. An example of preppy attire would be a navy blue blazer, button-down Oxford-cloth shirt, cuffed khakis, and cordovan loafers. Typical vacation spots include Newport, RI, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, Kennebunkport and certain other East Coast beaches, 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" as slang to describe those who appear clean-cut or strive to seem better off financially 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 mainstream meaning stated above, as the slang version most often describes 'nouveau riche', publicly-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 American Eagle, Aéropostale, Hollister Co., and Abercrombie and Fitch (prior to the original company's bankruptcy in 1977, it in fact was a prep staple). However, the "New England prep" 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.

Athletics

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

Drinks

The following liquor brands were cited to be "preppy" in a sequel to The Official Preppy Handbook, Tipsy in Madras:

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

Prep Schools

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

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.

The following were the original preppiest schools according to The Official Preppy Handbook:

The Runners-Up:

External links

We're All Preppies Now