whip [ME] A word that came into English from old German and Dutch wippen ‘to swing, leap, dance’. The parliamentary whip, responsible for ensuring that party members turn up and vote in debates, was originally a whipper-in. This is a term in hunting, where the whipper-in uses his whip to keep the hounds from straying. The short form is first found in 1850. A whip-round [M19th], or collection of contributions of money, is related. Since the late 17th century a whippersnapper has been a young person who is presumptuous or overconfident. It is literally ‘a person who cracks a whip’—the connection was probably making a lot of noise but achieving little. A whipping boy [M17th] is a person who is blamed for the faults of others. Originally it was a boy who was educated with a young prince and, because it would not be right for a commoner to beat a royal person, punished instead of him.