Whippersnapper is one of those rare terms that has a somewhat literal origin... a word that goes back hundreds of years. It is a closed compound word, a word composed of two separate words that were used together so often that they eventually melded into one word.
A "whippersnapper" is a young person who is presumptuous, overconfident, with no real talent for doing anything. "He's too young and inexperienced to drive the buggy, a whip-snapper barely qualified to snap the whip." The term derived from the 17th century term for a street thief, a "snipper-snapper" (snip your purse strap or snap up your wallet) and the aforementioned "whip-snapper".
Today the term, which is usually preceded by the word "young", is used in a slightly humorous context. "Democratic candidate Joe Biden will be 78 when he wins the White House. That is, if he can beat that young whippersnapper Trump who is mere kid at 74.”
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the correct spelling is as one word, "whippersnapper", though it is occasionally seen in hyphenated form, "whipper-snapper". The plural form is "whippersnappers".
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In the Middle Ages, and likely before that, people fed all their scraps of leftover food and drink and vegetable skins and peels and anything else organic to their pigs. Plates and trenchers were scraped and washed into a bucket and then mixed in with all the above to make “mash” or “swill”—hence the word “pigswill.” ‘Hogwash” is a synonym for this mash.
So “hogwash” is food that you would never want to eat. So undesirable that only a hog would eat it.
To say that your argument is “hogwash” is to say that no one will swallow it.
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Under the section entitled “Rat’s ass in ancient times”, it says: “In ancient Greek times people would sacrifice rat's ass to the gods. If someone didn't sacrifice any rat's ass, than it was said they didn't care about the gods. So when someone says ‘I don't give a rat's ass’ (I don't care), that's where it comes from.”
Haha, I’m sorry. That’s just a joke answer, but if people are actually going to read this, I’ll explain more seriously:
This phrase is not so much a fixed expression as a construction with one slot that can be filled in with whatever you like: “I don’t give _____.” I can think of at least three curse words that you hear in that slot all the time, the tamest (and oldest attested in the phrase) being “damn”. I believe this phrase was an outgrowth of the older “not worth _____” construction, as in “This crumpet is not worth a farthing, so of course I shan’t be giving one!”
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hxxps://www.quora.com/Where-did-the-word-whippersnappers-come-from
A "whippersnapper" is a young person who is presumptuous, overconfident, with no real talent for doing anything. "He's too young and inexperienced to drive the buggy, a whip-snapper barely qualified to snap the whip." The term derived from the 17th century term for a street thief, a "snipper-snapper" (snip your purse strap or snap up your wallet) and the aforementioned "whip-snapper".
Today the term, which is usually preceded by the word "young", is used in a slightly humorous context. "Democratic candidate Joe Biden will be 78 when he wins the White House. That is, if he can beat that young whippersnapper Trump who is mere kid at 74.”
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the correct spelling is as one word, "whippersnapper", though it is occasionally seen in hyphenated form, "whipper-snapper". The plural form is "whippersnappers".
********************************************************************************
In the Middle Ages, and likely before that, people fed all their scraps of leftover food and drink and vegetable skins and peels and anything else organic to their pigs. Plates and trenchers were scraped and washed into a bucket and then mixed in with all the above to make “mash” or “swill”—hence the word “pigswill.” ‘Hogwash” is a synonym for this mash.
So “hogwash” is food that you would never want to eat. So undesirable that only a hog would eat it.
To say that your argument is “hogwash” is to say that no one will swallow it.
**********************************************************************************
Under the section entitled “Rat’s ass in ancient times”, it says: “In ancient Greek times people would sacrifice rat's ass to the gods. If someone didn't sacrifice any rat's ass, than it was said they didn't care about the gods. So when someone says ‘I don't give a rat's ass’ (I don't care), that's where it comes from.”
Haha, I’m sorry. That’s just a joke answer, but if people are actually going to read this, I’ll explain more seriously:
This phrase is not so much a fixed expression as a construction with one slot that can be filled in with whatever you like: “I don’t give _____.” I can think of at least three curse words that you hear in that slot all the time, the tamest (and oldest attested in the phrase) being “damn”. I believe this phrase was an outgrowth of the older “not worth _____” construction, as in “This crumpet is not worth a farthing, so of course I shan’t be giving one!”
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hxxps://www.quora.com/Where-did-the-word-whippersnappers-come-from
It is Well with My Soul