Buppy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A young, educated African American professional who works in a white-collar career and lives an affluent urban lifestyle
2. An ambitious, middle-class Black city dweller in a well-paid office job, typically in their twenties or thirties
3. A term for a successful young Black professional, coined on the model of yuppie, who has a high income and urban tastes

Etymology: "Buppy" is an alternative form of "buppie," a word blended from "black" and "yuppie." The model for that second part is "yuppie," itself a term built from the initials of "young urban professional," which was coined in the 1980s as a label for ambitious, affluent young city workers. The "buppie" half of the blend is shaped by an abbreviation: "black urban professional," modelled on the same pattern. So the word combines a descriptor for the group with a shortened form that copies the rhythm and sound of "yuppie," producing a compact label for Black professionals in urban settings. Because "buppy" is only a spelling variant, its meaning and origin are the same as "buppie." The difference is purely orthographic: "buppy" follows the -y ending of "yuppy," while "buppie" follows the -ie ending used in some other informal coinages.