dandyprat

   In the sixteenth century this word was variously applied to a small coin, to a person who was either physically or morally insignificant, or to a young lad. The origin of the word is not known, though the first element appears to be a form of ‘Andrew’ - presumably a name chosen at random - while the second element may have been ‘sprat’. Used mainly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contemptuously to a man but probably with simple allusion to smallness to a boy. ‘My little dandiprat’ occurs as a vocative in Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott, but allowance must be made for that author’s conscious use of obsolete or archaic terms.