How do you define someone as being posh?

You could move to the common thread annsixty

I have just used the word lounge on another thread.
Oh the shame. Will I have to leave GN?

I bet you do, jooljs. Everyone has an accent.

People think I'm posh because I speak with no accent! I'm not, honest

My daughter went to school once and said we were posh because we had grapes in the fridge and no one was even sick.

I know this about rugs because I inherited one which was filthy and in shreds.

We nearly chucked it on the skip (which reminds me, skips on drives are common) but thought maybe I should just look into it first so I took it to a specialist for an opinion.

They identified the region, history, tribe etc and wanted to send it back to the actual village in the mountains somewhere exotic (can't remember the details) to be professionally restored. This would cost around £4,000 and the restored rug would be worth at least £6,000.

We didn't have £4000 to spend on restoring a rug too expensive to ever walk on so we took the other option. £250 cash in hand.

To refer to your one and only sitting room as a 'drawing room' is pretentious.

If your drawing room is one of several reception rooms (drawing room, morning room, day room, library, dining room, garden room etc) then it is perfectly appropriate.

'Toilet' is only considered common by the aspiring middle classes who are trying too hard. (See 'calling a spade a spade is not common' posted earlier.) Posh people don't flinch from common words, they embrace them and usually (as has been previously pointed out) declare them loudly and with relish.

Which brings me to relish, not pickle, unless onions which are pickled and stacked in jars in the pantry.

Agree posh people don't buy furniture. I would add carpets to that - they just have their rugs professionally restored at great expense.

I'm posh according to the quiz, news to me

I think a drawing room is a very large room in a big house with several other reception rooms, but I have heard folk who either were posh or want to be posh refer to their one and only living room as "the drawing room".

Oopsadaisy I love your list too! I lived in rural Oxfordshire for years so maybe we know the same people?!

We recently downsized to a less posh (ie more common...) area and am endlessly entertained by the little differences I observe on a daily basis.

I hadn't got into cars but yes, the older and more beat up and filthy the posher the people. Where I am now people have flash cars on smart block-paved parking spaces outside their houses. Very smart but not posh. I've noticed they have a lounge too. I might soon have a lounge myself - these things are quite catching.

One thing for sure is I will always have pudding.

I think a good social identifier for the modern age is that some people put their wheelie bins out for the refuse collection and then take them in off the street again so they cannot be seen and others leave them in full view all week round.

I have no authority for saying that polite and considerate bin etiquette is 'posh' but leaving the bins out all the time, even (and, perhaps, especially) if in a front garden, is certainly naff.

Since when is saying toilet not common? Of course it is.

I suppose drawing room is the poshest term for what I call the sitting room.

Posh people don’t buy furniture, it’s all inherited, wood worm and all!

Front room or sitting room.
I was taught to break a small piece off a roll & butter that bit & eat each small bit rather than cut the roll & spread butter on it as that was 'vulgar'. My Mum liked the word vulgar or common! Grandma told me I would never go to tea with the Queen if I didn't mind my table manners.
She must have been right as I never have been invited.
Just goes to show how times have changed although do still eat a roll like that! It does save getting butter on your mouth.

Jamilla, absolutely. You are more than halfway there!

As for cats I might have got that wrong. My cat thinks he's a king if not an actual god when he is actually a common tabby. So maybe he's both?!

Mymadeupname I loved your list!
here in rural Oxfordshire you are posh if you drive a ratty old car, usually an old Volvo or old Land Rover Defender, usually full of muddy boots and Barbour jackets all suitably holey and with at least 2 smelly dogs.
You have an AGA in your huge and freezing cold kitchen. Posh people don’t put their heating on, they all went to boarding schools with no heating at all.
Usually they throw things on the floor as they all seem to think that a skivvy from the 19 th century will come along behind them and clear the mess away.
They usually have a voice that can carry across a Gymkana field.
They are often very friendly and will serve Waitrose biscuits straight onto the tablecloth and will shoo the dogs awf the table before you sit down.
They are usually very old and call their late parents Mummy and Daddy.
They have huge portraits of glowering ancient relatives hanging on the walls.
Stalwarts of various local voluntary groups.
Where would we be without them?

It’s all down to accent in England and, of course, that’s down to education. You are all so class conscious here!

Does having a cupboard full of unused/forgotten art materials count?

I meant to add that one way guaranteed to propel you from being 'common' to 'not common' (though it won't make you posh without additional tweaking to the dessert / pudding /lounge/ sitting room conundrum mentioned earlier) is to become an artist of some sort.

Being an artist is never common. If you can't draw or paint, try clay.

Cats are common, dogs are not. Unless the cats are farm cats to keep the vermin under control on the estate, that's not common at all.

All the cats in the UK are getting armed, teeth and claws at the ready mymadeupname

Did you not know that dogs think they're human, cats know they're gods?

Thank you for this NanKate. What a hoot! Camelotclub, I don't own an airport or a hotel (although it regularly feels like the latter) but I certainly do have a lounge and, by jove,
a living room. Ultra posh from the sounds of things here. I can't keep the grin off my face. How wonderfully silly we are.

grannyanna reverse snobbery?

Aspired to being posh! I knew I had succeeded when I used yellow dusters instead of old underwear!

Lounge is common, sitting room is not.
Dinner at midday is common, lunch is not.
Rest room, bathroom & bog are common; toilet, loo and lavatory are not.
Tea is either a drink or a meal for children served at 5 o'clock in the nursery. Tea as a meal at any other time is common, as in 'will you be home for your tea?'
Dinner is served in the evening. Sauce bottles on the table are fine as long as the napkins (not serviettes) are linen (preferably Irish).
(There is a picture out there somewhere of the Queen's breakfast table at Balmoral, a jar of HP sauce in plain view.) Hiding sauce bottles or decanting them into little dishes is common. (Unless they are home-made, in which case it is fine for them to be spooned into little serving dishes - the Kilner jars in which they are stored would take up too much room and go off too quickly. They belong in the pantry).
Enormous TV sets on the wall (especially above the fireplace) and TV sets concealed behind cabinets are common, ancient TV sets are not.
TV and telly are common. TV sets are not.
Dessert, sweet and afters are common. Pudding is not.
Bad manners are common, good manners are not.
TV sets in bedrooms are common.
Shiny tights are common.
Brassy highlights are common.
Cats are common, dogs are not. Unless the cats are farm cats to keep the vermin under control on the estate, that's not common at all.
Estate means your grounds ie garden (preferably including a walled kitchen garden) and surrounding parkland. Any other sort of estate is common, other than your 'estate' which is being dealt with by Trustees after you are dead.
Passing away is common. Dying, died and dead are not.
Calling a spade a spade is not common. Calling a spade a garden implement or anything else is common.
Marmalade is never common (preferably served with an oatcake). Jam at breakfast is common unless you are in France when it is a 'preserve'. Just don't eat it with your croissant (that should be torn up and dipped in your coffee).
Shovelling shit is not common except it's called 'dung' and takes place in stables.
Parking space outside your house is common. Drives (preferably very long) are not.

Boot rooms are never common, especially when they have dead birds hanging among the waxed jackets and wellington boots.
Muddy dogs are not common, especially when they have the run of the house and are not confined to the boot room.

Leaving school with a small clutch of GCSEs or O levels is not common as long as you have good manners and say sitting room and pudding, not lounge and sweet. Having a degree in media studies is common, even if you say sitting room and pudding.

Anyone who says 'gotten' is common. As is shutting your cats in the lounge because of their muddy feet. (Daughter, are you reading this?)
It is possible to have a posh mother and a common daughter.
It is possible to have a common mother and a posh daughter.
Being an air hostess is common. Being married to the future King is not.
Being judgemental is common. Being open and accepting is not.
Silver cutlery is not common. Gold plated cutlery is.
Boasting is common.
I could go on...

Wally Some of the wealthiest people I know are also the most vulgar! I like good manners and consideration for others, money is not a criterion.

The words 'please' and 'thank you' are seriously underused these days.

I don't mind if the sauce bottle is on the table, but please ensure that the top is clean and not covered with several weeks' sticky reside.

I like to dress smartly, especially when I go to the theatre.

I'm always grateful to people who offer a hand to my disabled husband - and encouraged by the fact that he rarely has to wait long for an offer of help when he needs it.

I don't like bad language, but maybe I should pity those with a limited vocabulary.

There is no need for people to shout so much. Since he had the stroke, my husband has become very sensitive to loud noises. My son has a friend with Asperger's who insists on travelling First Class because he can't cope with it, and I know several people who have age-related hearing problems who feel the same. This is not just being fussy - they feel real pain.