Dandiprat

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small, insignificant person, often a young boy or urchin ; a small silver coin once minted in England, worth very little
2. An undersized or unimportant little fellow, typically a youngster ; a tiny old English silver coin of low value
3. A diminutive, trifling person, particularly a boy ; a small coin of silver used in England in earlier centuries

Etymology: Dandiprat was an Elizabethan insult for a small, cheeky child, or for a person of little importance. The word's origin is uncertain. It may be a compound of "dandy" and "prat" (a buttock or rump), though that pairing is itself a guess, and the earliest records for "dandiprat" are from the 1500s, when it was used for a small silver coin worth about a penny in the reign of Henry VIII. The coin was known as a "dandiprat" or "dandyprat", and the name was applied to small or insignificant people as a joke on that low value. The most striking detail is how the insult ran through the coin's meaning. Writers of the period used "dandiprat" to mean a diminutive person, a "little dandiprat" being a wee child, and this figurative sense outlived the coin itself.

Synonyms: whippersnapper, urchin