The term yuppie (short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional") refers to a market segment whose consumers are characterized as self-reliant, financially secure individualists. Since the late 1980s, the phrase "affluent professionals" has been used as a synonym, stripped of negative associations with the once-homogenous market. History Although the term yuppies hadn't appeared until the early 1980s, there was discussion about young urban professionals as early as 1… (More on Yuppies)