puppy, you young

   In modern use an expression that would typically be used by an older man of a certain social or professional standing to a younger man who was behaving impertinently. Applied to such young men, ‘puppy’ has been used contemptuously since the end of the sixteenth century. The use of ‘young’ merely strengthens the insult, though it can be replaced by other words. ‘You blasted puppy’ occurs, for instance, in Love in Quiet Places, by Bernard Thompson.

   ‘Puppy’ derives from French poupée and was at first used in English to refer to a toy dog rather than a young one. That sense is now, of course, obsolete. Use of ‘puppy’ may suggest other dog-like insults to the speaker. ‘Get off, you puppy,’ says Croaker to Leontine, in Goldsmith’s The GoodNatured Man. He adds: ‘Stupid whelp!’

   The short form ‘pup’ occurs in Pudd’nhead Wilson, by Mark Twain. A black woman says to a young man: ‘Set down, you pup! Does you think you kin skyer me?’