Posted on 07/05/2008 10:38:14 AM PDT by NewMediaJournal
Gather around class. On July 4, 2008, the United States of America will celebrate its 232nd birthday. Happy Birthday, you “whippersnapper!” The word “whippersnapper” originated about 100-years, before the freedom-loving colonists told King George to go jump in the lake. To be historically accurate, this dynast’s tea is what the rebels threw into Boston Harbor.
Whippersnapper originally referred to a young person, usually male, who was unimportant and insignificant – but presumptuous. That epithet certainly applied to our early thirteen colonies. They were unimportant and insignificant, relative to the mighty British Empire, but they were also presumptuous in attempting to break away from Mother England. But break away they did!
The modern version of “whippersnapper” describes a person with both ambition and a healthy streak of “impertinence.” Older and more established nations – and even some citizens of this country – feel that the U.S. should be as staid, unimaginative, and lacking in courage as they are. Their desire for the U.S. to conform to their chronically failing economies and their inability to defend themselves militarily did not begin in the 18th century.
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