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Classy and common
16 Answers
I know someone who frequently uses such words.
It annoys me.
To be classier than someone to me means you think you are better for whatever reason? And if someone is common then you again think you are better?
Arent we all "common" as in- have things in common?
I really cant stand it actually. I think id almost rather be common than think i am something better than anyonelse. Which im not. X
It annoys me.
To be classier than someone to me means you think you are better for whatever reason? And if someone is common then you again think you are better?
Arent we all "common" as in- have things in common?
I really cant stand it actually. I think id almost rather be common than think i am something better than anyonelse. Which im not. X
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It's a classic lower middle class thing to say: "How common!" That usually refers to behaviour but occasionally refers to possessions.
The one distinguishing feature which the old working class and the upper class share is that neither cares very much about their image or behaviour being thought inappropriate or wrong by anybody else. That's because they are confident in their place. The Queen uses Tupperware at breakfast: How common! She isn't worried by that and made no attempt to hide it from the cameras when a documentary was being shot. Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced 'bouquet'), from Keeping Up Appearances, would have been mortified at the very thought of anyone knowing.
Classy is the opposite, the favoured word of approbation. It is another 'middle' word and betrays the same insecurities.
The one distinguishing feature which the old working class and the upper class share is that neither cares very much about their image or behaviour being thought inappropriate or wrong by anybody else. That's because they are confident in their place. The Queen uses Tupperware at breakfast: How common! She isn't worried by that and made no attempt to hide it from the cameras when a documentary was being shot. Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced 'bouquet'), from Keeping Up Appearances, would have been mortified at the very thought of anyone knowing.
Classy is the opposite, the favoured word of approbation. It is another 'middle' word and betrays the same insecurities.
"We are better than that"? Better in what way, exactly? The speaker is not usually talking about morals, is she (it's usually a 'she') It's never wife-beating or stealing. It's always something which they feel 'lowers the tone', in some mysterious way.
Golf clubs are full of people who worry about tone and standards. One I belonged to had a commitee which complained because the club captain turned up in a van bearing his company's name, which he'd taken from the yard. The man was the biggest employer in the town, and respected, but turning up in one of his own vans, instead of his car, was lowering the tone. Who really cared ? What did it matter? He certainly didn't and neither should they have. I thought it was very funny as well as stupid, but then I'd have done the same. I suppose the committee thought they were better than that!
Golf clubs are full of people who worry about tone and standards. One I belonged to had a commitee which complained because the club captain turned up in a van bearing his company's name, which he'd taken from the yard. The man was the biggest employer in the town, and respected, but turning up in one of his own vans, instead of his car, was lowering the tone. Who really cared ? What did it matter? He certainly didn't and neither should they have. I thought it was very funny as well as stupid, but then I'd have done the same. I suppose the committee thought they were better than that!
I think the terms "common" and "classy" are used mostly by pretentious people who think they're a cut above.
The term I always remembered from my youth was "plebby" then again, it wasn't used very often and when it was, it was tongue in cheek (there was no equivalent to "classy").
I was raised within what could be termed upper middle class surroundings, surrounded by people who rode horses, rubbed shoulders with royalty, whose daughters attended gymkhanas etc and I don't remember there being any class issues or distinctions made between one social group and the next. It was when I was moved from my prep school to a state-run London middle school that I learned that there were 'divisions' - I had the p!ss ripped out of me for my posh accent and choice of hobbies and interests.
The term I always remembered from my youth was "plebby" then again, it wasn't used very often and when it was, it was tongue in cheek (there was no equivalent to "classy").
I was raised within what could be termed upper middle class surroundings, surrounded by people who rode horses, rubbed shoulders with royalty, whose daughters attended gymkhanas etc and I don't remember there being any class issues or distinctions made between one social group and the next. It was when I was moved from my prep school to a state-run London middle school that I learned that there were 'divisions' - I had the p!ss ripped out of me for my posh accent and choice of hobbies and interests.
Exactly, answerprancer. I can give a peculiar example of class structure and thinking.
I was brought up in the same surroundings as you. I remember, at 5 years old and walking to the village school, the old village road mender would tip his cap to me and say '" 'Morning, Master Fred". At 5! That was the, for want of a better word, status, given by an elderly man to a freehold farmer's son in a village in the early 50s, as it was to the vicar's children.. (I'd be in real trouble if I hadn't said "Good morning [whatever his name was] back or forget the name of anyone who greeted me on my mile walk, and reply to them)
Those days are long gone, happily; they were dying out then, for the roadman was old; but the point is that I was sent to the village school. There, I was exactly the same and equal to every other child and they to me. The road mender's grandson, the vicar's daughter, the sons of farm workers, were all my friends and some who remained in the village, have stayed so ever since. It would never occur to me, or to them, that 'status' applied, that we were different and it hasn't since. Outside there was a hierarchy of farmer and employee, the status of vicar, and the rest, but the people were people.
That obsession with appearance or 'common' or 'classy' or 'standards', that 'golf club' thinking, is a peculiarly middle class one.You can't imagine Hyacinth Bouquet sending her 5 year old child to school with 'common' people! But these weren't common to my parents; their thinking was precisely the opposite. The people were villagers, same as me, same as them.
But none of us, nor our parents, were so insecure that we worried about it, about appearances. Nobody was going to worry about what we wore, or lowering the tone, or driving a van rather than a car.
I only became aware of this when in the wider world. My mother was amused and appalled when she heard someone complaining that someone had left their garden gate open at a house in Frinton-on-sea.The house was a deceased's estate and unoccupied, but the neighbour complained that that lowered the tone !It had been like that for a week. Pure Bouquet ! (Why the neighbour couldn't have shut it, was never explained)
I was brought up in the same surroundings as you. I remember, at 5 years old and walking to the village school, the old village road mender would tip his cap to me and say '" 'Morning, Master Fred". At 5! That was the, for want of a better word, status, given by an elderly man to a freehold farmer's son in a village in the early 50s, as it was to the vicar's children.. (I'd be in real trouble if I hadn't said "Good morning [whatever his name was] back or forget the name of anyone who greeted me on my mile walk, and reply to them)
Those days are long gone, happily; they were dying out then, for the roadman was old; but the point is that I was sent to the village school. There, I was exactly the same and equal to every other child and they to me. The road mender's grandson, the vicar's daughter, the sons of farm workers, were all my friends and some who remained in the village, have stayed so ever since. It would never occur to me, or to them, that 'status' applied, that we were different and it hasn't since. Outside there was a hierarchy of farmer and employee, the status of vicar, and the rest, but the people were people.
That obsession with appearance or 'common' or 'classy' or 'standards', that 'golf club' thinking, is a peculiarly middle class one.You can't imagine Hyacinth Bouquet sending her 5 year old child to school with 'common' people! But these weren't common to my parents; their thinking was precisely the opposite. The people were villagers, same as me, same as them.
But none of us, nor our parents, were so insecure that we worried about it, about appearances. Nobody was going to worry about what we wore, or lowering the tone, or driving a van rather than a car.
I only became aware of this when in the wider world. My mother was amused and appalled when she heard someone complaining that someone had left their garden gate open at a house in Frinton-on-sea.The house was a deceased's estate and unoccupied, but the neighbour complained that that lowered the tone !It had been like that for a week. Pure Bouquet ! (Why the neighbour couldn't have shut it, was never explained)
I often use 'classy' to mean elegant or stylish, especially regarding the design of something. But I never use 'common' as it just sounds rude. I remember one of my friends at school being told off by a teacher for eating crisps in the street because it made her 'look common' - I just thought how stuck-up that made the teacher sound.
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