How do gransetters define being "posh"?

A wise woman,your mother!

As a young teen I was told by a vicar that a man with 'true class' ( whatever that is?) treats every woman as a 'lady' !!
I mused on it and wondered if it worked in reverse ie woman treats all men as gentleman. Decided it was all ballcox rubbish.
I decided to stick with my mother's life rules of 'do as you would be done by' & 'never judge a book by its cover.'

haha...memories

I was once considered posh and was devastated when I found out. What happened was this. I met my husband just before going on a translating job to Austria for 4 months. We wrote of course, and met up when I got back.

We went straight to meet his family, about 24 hours after my leaving Vienna and speaking nothing but German for months. My Yorkshire accent had not come back - it took about a week - so I was found guilty of the unforgivable sin of being posh.

Don't think I was ever forgiven!!

Or to label them posh.

I agree with you *Elegran. Going around finding reasons to label other people common is not a classy thing to do.

Class has nothing really to do with "posh-ness". Posh is a relatively new expression coined by those who could not themselves afford to travel first-class Port-Out-Starboard-Home across the Atlantic on the fashionable ocean liners, so they disparaged those who could.

It has been extended to cover any nicety the speaker does not practice themselves. In "Hi-di-hi" Gladys asks, on hearing that someone is getting married, "When is the baby due?" No baby? "There's posh!!!"

Fish knives were originally a different shape to distinguish them from the usual ones so that only they were stained by fish - no stainless steel so they had to be arduously cleaned each time used) If you could not afford extra knives you used the same ones for everything.

Linen napkins kept your expensive clothes clean. There was no washing machine to throw them into. If you were a scruffy peasant or a slob you didn't bother.

I would define anyone's real class as how they treat other people's feelings, wishes and - yes - foibles. The "upper class" can be as good as that as the rest of us (or as bad)

Ok Jeni it looks like I'll have to wear scrubs with a mask! A few blood stains down the front and a steely glare! Will that work?

Seem to have wandered off thread.... sorry folks.

Jeni, does that mean that you just wear your everyday clothes? How is that more hygienic? Are 'white coat bugs' more lethal..?

anagram
Just typed a comprehensive answer to you, and lost it.
Try again tomorrow.

Nose in air! Not allowed to wear white coats these days! Might carry bugs!
Stethoscopes round necks are either nurses or junior Drs. Or even worse:- StUDENTS!

So, Johanna, where you came from originally is everyone considered absolutely equal?
We are a real mixture from what I can see here on Gransnet - no one takes the class thing that seriously!

Having lived here now for 40 years, I despair at you.
You have not changed at all.
You keep perpetuating the whole class system yourselves.!!!!!!!!!!!

Even by the age of 4 living on a London prefab estate, I remember 'knowing' that that people like the Doctor at the clinic were posh (so we were deferential to them) but Dickie Dirk over the road who played in puddles was definitely common (so we had to stear clear of him). I guess my working class mother was desperate to show she was moving upwards having married a man from Surrey (so in her mother's eyes, posh), but she could never be accepted by the real middle class professionals she was in awe of & were derided as posh.

I remember as a young child being told off by my parents for saying "them things" instead of "those things", glad they told me off because now I always flinch when I hear anyone saying them instead of those, sounds awful. Also hate the wrong use of tenses such as "when I come here" instead of "when I came here". Definitely not posh!

nanachrissy Ha!!! And will you have a stethoscope dangling [importantly] around your neck? If so, you should blend in very nicely.

I'm coming in a white coat Super so they won't dare throw me out if I misbehave!

Going to call myself "Jeni"

See you all at the posh hospital gather-round-the-bed-hijinxes. I'm looking forward to sampling every conceivable indulgence. Mr Super has agreed to keep a low profile [so as not to cramp our style]

Primitive Jings. I think we all need to evolve so we are indifferent to poshness!

Carol I can't work out your swear word. Fill it in!

bagitha only joking.

And I am sure I would agree with you about humans/biosphere if I knew what you were on about

No, jings. In winter the bones go in the fire (and the ashes go on the open compost heaps) and in summer they go in the "Green Cone", which is a closed, partly underground composting arrangement that can deal with bones but needs some heat (sunshine). Never posh. Always practical. And I value diversity in humans as well as in the rest of the biosphere.

Pork chop bones cry out to be chewed and gnawed at, don't they?

How 'p*******e' Jingl! As if....! You wicked person!

Bags re pork chops, do you chuck the bone over your shoulder when you've finished?

[respect! emoticon]