What in your view is common ?

My mother disapproved of my friendship with the dinner lady's daughter. I presume she was common.

Leaving washing on the line too long and perish the thought even overnight!!!?

I think for me, nowadays, common usually means bad mannered. For example, eating with your mouth open, chewing gum loudly, overtly sexualised public displays of affection, etc. I suppose too, being very scantily clad makes me judgemental!

When my DIL first came down from Hull to meet us she had lots of tattoos and piercings. I was horrified, especially as my son who was still under 18 was not allowed to have tattoos or anything other than his ears pierced if he wanted to live under his father's roof. When DIL tried to get a job in our area, she soon learned she had to take her piercings out and cover her tattoos to stand a chance of being successful. She was incensed and I wondered how she could be so naive. However, many years later, I wonder how I could have been so snobbish and judgemental. Tattoos and piercings don't change the personality; she is lovely, a hard worker, a good mother and a kind person. What more could I ask for my son who is a bit of a picture display board himself now. No amount of tattooing has changed his lovely nature.

Saying pardon rather than “what was that” too often.
Holding one’s dinner knife like a pen
Making chip “butties” at the dinner table
Saying “she/he’s ON THE TOILET (mainly small children in a loud voice) to someone asking where someone else is ?

Oh sorry, how could I forget milk bottles on the table
Toddlers with dummies in their mouths
These are just a selection of my mothers ?

I think common is trying to be what you’re not. Telephone voices, changing accent to ‘fit in’, bumping up your qualifications, school university or wherever you went (or worse, running it down), and boasting about your childrens’ achievements were the first things I thought of. And talking about money!

(And starting sentences with And, as I just did!)

Casdon

I think common is trying to be what you’re not. Telephone voices, changing accent to ‘fit in’, bumping up your qualifications, school university or wherever you went (or worse, running it down), and boasting about your childrens’ achievements were the first things I thought of. And talking about money!

I would have thought that was being pretentious? “Better than she ought to be”.
My mother gave me the impression that common was to be looked down upon - scruffy clothes, grubby children, rough language, gardens with mattresses in them

“No better than she ought to be”

Shirley48

Casdon

I think common is trying to be what you’re not. Telephone voices, changing accent to ‘fit in’, bumping up your qualifications, school university or wherever you went (or worse, running it down), and boasting about your childrens’ achievements were the first things I thought of. And talking about money!

I would have thought that was being pretentious? “Better than she ought to be”.
My mother gave me the impression that common was to be looked down upon - scruffy clothes, grubby children, rough language, gardens with mattresses in them

Maybe you’re right Shirley48, I was thinking of common in the sense of pretending to be what you’re not, which others suss immediately and laugh about - if you’re happy in your skin I don’t think you care what others think about what you look like or do, you do what you’re happy doing.

Sago I thought your mum's list was wonderful. Mainland Spain made me hoot with laughter. Half a million square kilometres of common!! I wonder if she had as amusing a list of list of things she thought posh/not common? If so, please do tell.

Kandinsky Not sure if men with shirts off are common but crikey I don't like to see it. They're not all the man in the 'All Men Are Created Equal' poster. Nobody needs to see hairy nipples in Morrisons.

From my teenage years I was told the following were 'common'
White stilettos
Ankle bracelets
Smoking in the street
Milk bottles on the table
Improper use of cutlery - this was a minefield
Ladies swearing
So many more, don't know how I got by in life really.

Thank goodness this expression has become politically incorrect - I hope and I haven't heard it for years .
It was a word that I dreaded throughout my childhood .
It meant my not being allowed to play with certain children .
Everyone , except a precious few was common :
They didn't speak the Queen's English .
They were loud .
Their parents smoked and gossiped in the street .
The women ( like fish wives ) were slovenly or sluttish in appearance wearing tight low cut tops or dresses or short skirts .Their houses were dirty .
They liked sex - here the voice was dropped to a virtually inaudible whisper and sex described as intercourse or better still intimate relations .
They swore .
They laughed like hyaenas .
They sat with their legs open like whores !
They didn't go to church .
Their husbands were labourers or did some other manual work .

And they lived in council houses or flats and many apologies to anyone who does !
It's not my fault that my parents were the most appalling snobs !
Today, common means having tattoos , a lot of boyfriends and a child out of wedlock - like my daughter, who has long since blotted her copybook - though she is loved .
And I'm not on the list of approved activities or attitudes either !

I don't know whether this would be considered common, but I hate those bands that parents put round babies' heads, as a pp said. What are they for? What happens if they slip down or catch on something?

And I also hate "slug eyebrows" - I am such a bigot!

I think making judgements about others is a sign of class nervousness. Very much like Alan Bennett's mum.

I worked for aristocracy as a nanny as a teenager. The innate sense of superiority was so secure that they didn't worry about the lower classes.

To me, they were self obsessed snobs. But they certainly didn't worry about what others were doing.

I’d rather be ‘common’, it sounds so much more fun than being stuck up and judgemental .

Blossoming

I’d rather be ‘common’, it sounds so much more fun than being stuck up and judgemental .

Same here! In all my years working in the newspaper industry, interviewing people of all creeds and classes, if there was one thing I learned, it was not to judge a book by its cover. I spoke to members of the aristocracy who couldn't have been more friendly or nice, same with people who would probably have been judged as very 'common' going by some of the criteria on here. The awkward ones tended to be those who - for whatever reason - thought they were so much better than others and looked down their noses at people.

HowVeryDareYou

fairfraise The song was by Pulp

I wondered if fairfraise was just testing to see how many people actually read her post!

Someone gave this answer on Quora to the question “what does it mean to be ‘common’ in the UK?

It's not a very common expression nowadays in the UK, especially for younger people. I don't think I have even heard any of my parents’ generation use the term. It would generally be the generation above that (born say, 1900–1930) who might talk like that, and even then it's pretty rare.

It's bound up with traditional English ideas of class. To be “common” is to be vulgar, unrefined, lacking social grace, and so on. It was generally used as a way of admonishing middle class children “don't do that, it's common”.

It's a pretty ugly expression. A very rough American analogy might be how some people are described as “trash” (another ugly expression). Anyone who used it, I would think is an insufferable snob.

Patent shoes according to my childhood best friend, in case you could see up her skirt!

Daddima not testing! Dont always check before I post!

My gransmothers list would have been

Eating in the street.
Sitting in the front garden.
Leaving washing out overnight.

I think the word chavvy took over from ^common amongst younger people. That's what my sons' generation use. Mind you, most of those are now in or nearing their forties, so today's youngsters might have a different word for it, that I'm not aware of. I must ask our 11 year-old dgs.

men with their tops off in public and hot tubs. I never looked at any house with a hot tub when I was looking to buy. They were a real deal breaker

Whether people are common who have a tattoo or not is up for debate in my opinion, well some little discreet tattoo might look OK on someone young with a nice body but definitely not on someone older who is overweight, multiple tattoos, face tattoos, sleeve tattoos covering your whole arm, leg tattoos complete with pictures of dogs and flags look common to me and I'm working class. The sunshine seems to bring all the tattoo fans out wearing clothes to show them off lol. I suppose the young don't worry about what their tattoos will look like when they are an oap.