Entry · catalog no. 5019
buppie
/ /ˈbʌpi/ /BUP-ee
noun · National, urban centers · 1980s
✓ Verified
1.
A young or upwardly mobile Black person in a professional career, tied in the 1980s to corporate work, city living and visible consumer success. Used descriptively, and often as gentle or pointed criticism of that lifestyle.
“He left the neighborhood for a corner office and a condo, and everybody called him a buppie.”
2.
By extension, someone seen as prizing status and mainstream acceptance over community ties.
“She took the buppie label as an insult until she saw how many of her friends wore it.”
Origin & Attribution
Buppie was formed on the pattern of "yuppie" to name the Black professionals that the white-coined term left out, read either as "black yuppie" or as "black urban professional." It was in print by 1985, when a UPI feature listed it among the variants of "yuppie." It grew out of the post-civil-rights Black middle class entering corporate, legal and media careers in the 1970s and 80s. The critic Nelson George treated the Buppie as one of four post-soul Black types in his 1992 Village Voice essay, describing them as "ambitious and acquisitive, determined to savor the fruits of integration by any means necessary." The individual coiner has not been established, and an oft-repeated earlier print date is unverified.
1985
Buppie appears in UPI's list of yuppie variants
1992
Nelson George's Village Voice essay defines the Buppie among four post-soul types
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
National, urban centers · 1980s
Spoken by
Black professionals, journalists and cultural critics
$BUPPIEThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Historical41 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
30/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1985
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Iris Krasnow, 'Yuppies thumb their noses at namecalling,' UPI, July 2, 1985
1985
■
Nelson George, 'Buppies, B-Boys, Baps & Bohos,' The Village Voice, March 17, 1992
1992
■
+ Cite a sourceNelson George, Buppies, B-Boys, Baps & Bohos (HarperCollins)
1992
See also