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How do you define someone as common?

(250 Posts)
SpringyChicken Sat 20-Jan-18 00:20:01

I couldn't resist this as a follow on to the 'posh' thread.

According to my mum, quite a lot of things were common, e.g eating 'on the hoof' in public places, women drinking from pint glasses and anyone wearing slippers in the street.
I attended a strict convent school where the headmistress addressed us at morning assembly. "Mrs Pengelly (teacher) was in town yesterday and saw one girl, and that girl knows who she is, in school uniform and eating a pasty." I still can't bring myself walk around with food.

Teetime Sat 20-Jan-18 09:47:46

At school it was eating anything at all in the street and DH and I still cant do it (DH and I went to the same school but he was before my time).

For my father it was ankle bracelets!!! and tattoos.

silverlining48 Sat 20-Jan-18 09:54:21

How about examples of common relating to men, why is it most examples so far relate only to women.
Havnt checked the dictionary but Common is what is usual. Often seen, many of.....so not disparaging in any way.

goldengirl Sat 20-Jan-18 10:01:21

I don't like to define anyone as 'common' these days. Gone are the times when there was such a class divide thank goodness - well for most of the population. There are still those around who think living in a gold plated mansion is classy!!! Ooops! Am I showing snobbery????

eazybee Sat 20-Jan-18 10:17:32

Anything worn that is imitation: fur, leather, nails.
Silk flower wedding bouquets. Ugh!

gillybob Sat 20-Jan-18 10:26:03

When I was a child “common” was a woman with bleached blonde hair who wore quite a bit of makeup and jewellery and horror of horrors went to the pub without her husband (it was my friends mum) shock

KatyK Sat 20-Jan-18 10:31:30

White stilettos with black tights/stockings, dyed blonde hair (which I now have!).

Grandma70s Sat 20-Jan-18 10:58:52

My ideas of what is common (though I have never used the word) are very much the same as those of people’s mothers on here. I suppose I am old enough to be the mother of some of you.

JoyBloggs Sat 20-Jan-18 11:17:01

Another convent girl here but somehow I managed not to get caught hatless in town!
I remember a fourth year girl in trouble for being seen kissing a boy in a phone box! I think we were all rather jealous.

NanKate Sat 20-Jan-18 11:39:36

Wiping your nose on your sleeve.
Saying 'ain't'
Lots of tattoos
Men wearing a vest outdoors
Drunken women
Broken down cars in the front garden

henetha Sat 20-Jan-18 11:43:26

It's a horrible word really, isn't it. I don't like to think of anyone as being common. It belongs firmly in the past.
Thank goodness we don't hear it much these days.

MissAdventure Sat 20-Jan-18 11:53:38

We don't hear people saying it, but threads about tattoos and cold shoulder tops soon bring out peoples prejudices, I think.

glammanana Sat 20-Jan-18 12:08:29

Vampire Scouse brows are eye brows drawn on thickly mostly done in black they are very prominent and unsightly
tbh.They first became popular in Essex if truth be known all the people who star in "Towie" have them some are even tattooed on for goodness sake.

petra Sat 20-Jan-18 12:19:07

glammanana
We might have started the awful look, but Liverpool girls took it to another level grin

WilmaKnickersfit Sat 20-Jan-18 13:00:31

vampirequeen scouse brows is the fashion for really heavy brows grin

I don't really think of things as 'common'. I might not like something or think it's naff, but it's just my personal opinion or preference.

We are judgemental, but each in our own way.

MissAdventure Sat 20-Jan-18 13:14:11

I have always thought its common to take your kids to the pub so you can spend the evening drinking. When I was a barmaid (also common!) I would see children falling asleep on the seats, having eaten their crisps and tried to get their parents attention all evening.

Bellanonna Sat 20-Jan-18 13:17:06

People who speak and guffaw loudly. Tut tut.

paddyann Sat 20-Jan-18 13:35:22

marydoll my mother would have said they had got on a wee bit and forgot where they came from ,I've come across a lot of those over the years .I dont remember people ever mentioning "class" when I was young its an import in recent years .We just accepted some people had more money or better jobs ..its didn't make them any better than us .As far as I'm concerned anyone who depends on a wage to live is working class ...regardless of what the job is .Nowadays folk have delusions of grandeur

NotTooOld Sat 20-Jan-18 13:44:22

I was always taught that class is a matter of education, not wealth. Make what you like of that one!

My mother said singing in the street was common, as was eating in the street (a definite no-no, that one). Other things were sling-backed shoes (why?) and sitting with your ankles crossed and your knees apart if you were a girl. She also pursed her lips at drinking from bottles. She was lovely, my mum, but a rather strictly brought up Wesleyan.

petra Sat 20-Jan-18 13:47:54

I think Tony Benn said "If you are paid for the job you do, you are working class"

WilmaKnickersfit Sat 20-Jan-18 13:57:01

That's always been my definition of working class. If you work for a living you're working class. Not everyone will agree.

NfkDumpling Sat 20-Jan-18 14:07:38

All of the above mentioned. A few additional ones for men - wearing a vest with no shirt, or even no top at all especially where other people could see, not opening a door for a lady or giving up his seat on the bus plus all of the other stuff already mentioned including shouting or swearing in public, belching (or worse still, farting). My Nan said that a woman who whistled was common too. She had a really long list.

Middle class works for a living too - but never doing anything to dirty ones hands. Common people often don’t work at all!

Jalima1108 Sat 20-Jan-18 14:12:40

Tattooes!
My theory (which may not be that of others) is that tattooes all over, combined with a vest/strappy top and possibly a fat belly is common.

Those famous people who think it's trendy to 'get down wiv da kids' and have a discreet little tattoo which is barely visible are, imo, posh.
Think David Dimbleby, Sam Cameron, Lady Steel.

It doesn't mean that one lot is nicer than the other lot btw as the heavily tattooed young woman who served me yesterday could not have been kinder and more helpful when we had a query.

whitewave Sat 20-Jan-18 14:12:45

Aren’t we all commoners?

whitewave Sat 20-Jan-18 14:13:29

Unless we have a secret royal grandmother posting. Sorry ma'amblush

Jalima1108 Sat 20-Jan-18 14:14:12

or even a step-grandmama
wink