The word whiffenpoof can refer to:

• an imaginary or indefinite animal; e.g. "the great-horned whiffenpoof;"
• a device used for tracking exercises;
• the Whiffenpoof Fish that forms the subject of a piece of comic dialogue in Victor Herbert
  Victor Herbert
  Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
  
  's 1908 operetta, Little Nemo
  Little Nemo
  Little Nemo is the main fictional character in a series of weekly comic strips by Winsor McCay that appeared in the New York Herald and William Randolph Hearst's New York American newspapers from October 15, 1905 – April 23, 1911 and April 30, 1911 – July 26, 1914; respectively.The...
  
  ;
• The Whiffenpoofs
  The Whiffenpoofs
  The Yale Whiffenpoofs are the oldest collegiate a cappella group in the United States, established in 1909. Best known for "The Whiffenpoof Song", based on a tune written by Tod Galloway and adapted with lyrics by Meade Minnigerode & George S Pomeroy , the group comprises college...
  
  , the Yale University
  Yale University
  Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
  
   singing group, founded in 1909 and named after the imaginary beast in the operetta;
• a stereotypic Yale alumnus or Ivy League
  Ivy League
  The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
  
  r

Imaginary or indefinite animal

Particularly among hunters, "whiffenpoof" can be a tongue-in-cheek name for imaginary animal like the jackalope

Jackalope

The jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns or deer antlers and sometimes a pheasant's tail . The word "jackalope" is a portmanteau of "jackrabbit" and "antalope", an archaic spelling of "antelope". It is also known as Lepus...

, or a placeholder name

Placeholder name

Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are either temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, or unknown in the context in which they are being discussed...

 for an animal (analogous to "thingamajig"):
"Whiffenpoof" has been used as a joking fictitious name for a member of the upper crust; a 1922 Philadelphia newspaper columnist writes of an opera performance attended by "Mrs. T. Whiffenpoof Oscarbilt, Mr. and Mrs. Dudbadubb Dodo and [their] three dashing daughters who have just finished a term at Mrs. Pettiduck's School for Incorrigibles at Woodfern-by-the-Sea."

Tracking device

"Whiffenpoof" is also a more obscure name for a tracking device used in the 1940's and 50's. It is a large, cylinder-shaped log that has several dozen nails driven all the way around the sides of it, sticking out approximately two inches. There are also railroad spikes driven into the ends of the log, which create an effective way to carry it.

For the exercises, a rope would be tied around the log, and it would be dragged throughout various woodlands, creating a trail of sorts. The trackers would then attempt to follow the markings, and eventually locate the Whiffenpoof. They would bring it back as proof that they had successfully tracked it.

In Victor Herbert's Little Nemo

One reviewer of the 1908 operetta gave a paragraph of praise to the comic hunting tales presented in a scene in which three hunters are trying to outdo each other with hunting stories about the "montimanjack," the "peninsula," and the "whiffenpoof." He calls it "one of the funniest yarns ever spun" and compares it favorably to Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...

's The Hunting of the Snark

The Hunting of the Snark

The Hunting of the Snark is usually thought of as a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll in 1874, when he was 42 years old...

.

One source indicates that the dialogue in fact began as an ad lib by actor Joseph Cawthorn

Joseph Cawthorn

Joseph Cawthorn was an American stage and film comic actor....

, covering for some kind of backstage problem during a performance.

The Yale Whiffenpoofs

According to Whiffenpoof historian James M. Howard:

The group admired a musical setting of Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...

's poem, "Gentlemen-Rankers," that was performed by another Yale singing group, and adapted its lyrics to create The Whiffenpoof Song.

As a character stereotype

For Yale graduates, The Whiffenpoof Song is replete with nostalgia. Thus, "whiffenpoof" can refer to a college alumnus who, figuratively, is too willing to sing his college song in public:

Maureen Dowd

Maureen Dowd

Maureen Bridgid Dowd is a Washington D.C.-based columnist for The New York Times and best-selling author. During the 1970s and the early 1980s, she worked for Time magazine and the Washington Star, where she covered news as well as sports and wrote feature articles...

, in a satirical article, refers to Prescott Bush

Prescott Bush

Prescott Sheldon Bush was a Wall Street executive banker and a United States Senator, representing Connecticut from 1952 until January 1963. He was the father of George H. W. Bush and the grandfather of George W...

(Yale '17) as a "Whiffenpoof."