What in your view is common ?

MissAdventure

Class, in my judgement is little to do with where a person was bought up, or whether they had a "good job".
You can't buy class, unfortunately for some, so you (one) has to invent reasons why someone is "less than", in order to feel superior.

I agree, and think things like milk in tea, or which cutlery to use are thought up for exactly that reason.

I was taught that manners are about making people feel comfortable, and looking sideways at someone for saying 'couch' or drying their washing in the wrong way is the opposite of that, IMO.

As for tattoos, my daughter has several. I am not a fan at all, but they don't make her 'common'. She is a considerate, well educated and well-mannered person who knows better than to judge a book by its cover.

If you can read the last page, it clearly says that milk to be put in the cup after the tea, and each cup should be done separately. Either pour the milk yourself or hand the milk jug to the guest.

Yes, I thought that the 'U' way of doing it was to add the milk later, but what others do really doesn't upset me either way. I like unmilky tea, so don't like anyone putting milk in for me because if it goes in first there is no control over the way it ends up. I would still talk to anyone who put the milk in first though, even if they dunked their biscuit?

I thought anything goes these days?

No idea, never think about it. I had parents who were non-judgmental, or at least acted as if they were not, and treated everyone the same, so I never caught the habit of looking down on people.

Your list would be mine too kandinsky

Class, in my judgement is little to do with where a person was bought up, or whether they had a "good job".
You can't buy class, unfortunately for some, so you (one) has to invent reasons why someone is "less than", in order to feel superior.

My Mums list

Eating in the street
Young children with pierced ears.
Holding knife and fork in the wrong hands
Shovelling peas in your mouth
Talking with your mouth full.
Washing hung out haphazardly ?
She called faggots, savoury ducks
And cleaned her buttery knife by sliding it through her toast
Ghewing gum was heinous.

I have none of those, other than talking with your mouth full and bad use of cutlery.

I don't think being common/chavvy/skanky (or trailer trash in the USA) is necessarily a class thing, it's more about the way you behave or look. If people behave in a slobbish or dirty manner or look cheap with excessive modifications to face, hair or body then they will be deemed common (or whatever word you prefer).

I don't think anyone could say whether the people who fit that criteria are nice people or not. They may be really lovely people with kind hearts or whatever, but they can still look or behave in a common way.

Years ago it was certain shoes. Red was a definite no-no, shoes with a ankle strap, and possibly worst of all, high heels with trousers!

The definition of common that has stayed with me from childhood is eating in the street (in school this was joint top sin together with removing your school hat) but my grandmother regarded a lady going out wearing gloves but no hat as totally behind the pale.

I think I would now describe common, as being loud and inconsiderate of other people, interestingly a characteristic that actually covers all social classes.

Blimey.
Full on today, isn't it?

I have a book on my shelf called "The Common People" by Harrison, published 1984.

The paragraph on the back says: "This book is about the people who are usually left out of history: the men and women who have laboured to make a living in a world they did not create; whose work has sustained that wealthy ruling minority which is normally the subject of history books."

Hands up then. That's most of us, and we should be proud of that.

It is all ridiculous nonsense, bound up with snobbery, isn't it?
All these do's and don'ts.

Common is not a word I normally use, but I do use the word UNcommon, to mean unusual, which makes " common" the norm! Make what you want of that.

Going back to 1662, the Book of Common Prayer ( still in use in some churches today ) contained prayers in English, not Latin, for the use of the Common People, ie ordinary folk.

I heard this saying many years ago in a serious context referring to people that were not of the upper class.

I cant say I have heard it in recent times.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202208/medium-14797-page-1.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202208/medium-609047-page-8.jpg

Chewbacca Doodledog apparently, the "upper classes" put milk in the teacup first because their teacups were only of the finest bone china and so therefore more likely to break when boiling tea was poured in. Whereas the "lower classes" had thicker cups that could withstand the sudden influx of boiling tea and so they added their milk after.

This is different! I found a Little Book of Table Manners which was obviously written for the upper classes in the 1930s and gives very clear instructions on every course and how to eat correctly. It is wonderful!

If you can read the last page, it clearly says that milk to be put in the cup after the tea, and each cup should be done separately. Either pour the milk yourself or hand the milk jug to the guest.

Blossoming

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

???

Doodlebug, your post about milk and tea made me smile. It’s a debate that someone of our age would have, but I was in a queue on Monday and 3 boys aged about 18 were having having quite a heated row about whether milk should go in first. I was waiting for the jam or cream first argument so I could join in but then they started talking about computer games. How common is that?

My mum went on a bus run with some women she worked with...She was horrified when she got home..Said the women were drinking smoking and swearing like dockers!...She said one woman was dancing in the aisle of the bus with just her bra and her skirt tucked in her knickers...Said they were common Tarts....Even worse for her they were all back at work on the Monday all nicey nicey she said....We still laugh about that today

I suppose it will be a common sight on the care homes lol.

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.

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

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.

My gransmothers list would have been

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

Daddima not testing! Dont always check before I post!

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

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.