Preppy

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Preppy is a chiefly American adjective traditionally used to describe the characteristics of White, Anglo-Saxon, patrician Protestants (usually with some personal or familial connection to New England, even if only historic) who attend or attended major private, secondary university-preparatory schools. These characteristics include particular subcultural speech, vocabulary, accent, dress, mannerisms, etiquette, and general way of being. 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. Many Americans first heard the term in the 1970 Arthur Hiller film Love Story.

Current Usage

The word preppie (or "preppy") has come to refers people of a certain class, wealth, and of respectable origin, perhaps a term that rather discriminatorily includes only established, New England WASP Families. More generally, preppies are students that went to College preparatory schools (boarding schools in New England). and currently attend Ivy League universities and other elite East Coast "Little Ivies". A true preppie—or perhaps, more aptly, the preppy ideal—is athletic, intelligent, and sociable. They wear such brands as Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, Brooks Brothers, J. Press, and L.L. Bean.

Slang Usage

In recent years, young people have begun to use the term "preppy" as slang to describe those who appear clean-cut or seem slightly better off financially than others in a given 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 brands not characteristic of "prepdom" as indicated above, including Polo, Lacoste, and Patagonia. 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, or other sports typically linked with the elite New England lifestyle.

Preppies also exist in Mexico and they are called fresas. They are rather similar to their American counterparts.

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

Institutions of higher learning

These colleges and universities were ranked among "the preppiest" by the Official Preppy Handbook in 1980.

Music

These Genres are usually listened by Preppy Audiences

Preppy towns and neighborhoods

These towns were ranked among "the preppiest" by the Official Preppy Handbook in 1980, or are generally considered to be preppy places today.

Alabama

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Illinois

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Missouri

New Jersey

New York

North Carolina

  • Charlotte's affluent sections/suburbs: South Park, Piper Glen, Center City

Ohio

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

okay yeah no offense but this is kind of gay

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Virginia

Washington

See also

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