Word.ws English Dictionary

yuppie flu

yuppie flu noun: chronic fatigue syndrome.

Noun

yuppie flu (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory, slang) Chronic fatigue syndrome.
    Synonyms:
    yuppie disease

Synonyms of yuppie flu

Origin of yuppie flu

Like yuppie food stamp, the term originally connoted (and may still connote) contempt by working-class people for others who are perceived as rich, undeserving, and soft. Thus, yuppies are people who can afford (have the luxury) to consider chronic fatigue syndrome a "real" medical problem, whereas working-class people just have to suck it up and tough it out when they feel tired. Compare also rich man's disease (only rich people can afford to get gout). Multiple biases are implicit: affluence is undeserved, CFS is fake and people who have it are whiners, and so on.

Questions about yuppie flu

What does yuppie flu mean?
Yuppie flu means chronic fatigue syndrome.
What part of speech is yuppie flu?
Yuppie flu is a noun.

Words near yuppie flu in the dictionary

  1. yuppers
  2. yuppette
  3. yuppettes
  4. yuppie
  5. yuppie disease
  6. yuppie flu
  7. yuppie food stamp
  8. yuppie food stamps
  9. yuppiedom
  10. yuppiehood
  11. yuppieish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: yuppie flu (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-yuppie flu.ogg.

Cite this entry: “yuppie flu.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/yuppie_flu. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.