How do you define someone as common?

Two remarks come to mind.
Grammar school boy Alan Bennett was showing his proud parents, visiting from Leeds, around Oxford. Across a lake came the cry 'Look at those common people!'

A small John Betjeman, whose father was 'in trade' had greatly enjoyed a children's party. As he happily left he overheard 'Who was that strange, rather common, little boy?'

Being judgemental may not be common but it's certainly vulgar as well as unkind.

mAy

Caroline - Poverty and depression my also be involved.

Young ladies wore hats and gloves and avoided anything "common"

I went to a school which had, when I started, a good academic reputation. All the time I was there it went steadily downhill (not entirely my fault) until they gave up pretending to educate clever girls and tried to pretend they were turning out "young ladies". You might already have guessed that they weren't any good at that either.

Accirding to my Mum and Nan, it was common to:
Wear a black bra under a white top (I still can't do this)
Wear white stilettoes
Have bleached hair
Wear bright red lipstick and nail polish
Eat in the street (other than sweets or - weirdly - chips..!)
Wear gold hoop earrings
Smoke while doing the housework (?)
Spoon soup/tip the soup plate towards you instead of away
Chew gum - especially bubble gum
And the biggie - the real giveaway that someone was 'common as muck' - NOT WASH YOUR MILK BOTTLES..!!! I still wash my plastic milk containers carefully before putting them into the recycling bin ?

Chrishappy you've not got scouse brows! Take a look at the photo I posted at 13:00 yesterday.

MissA That's a bit deep for a Sunday!

I must be common, as I'm on Merseyside and have had my brows tattooed on. Though not as thick and dark as a Scouse Brown!!! I love my new eyebrows

Women or men shouting and swearing in the street.
Going to the shops in their nightwear.
Dirty kids in dirty pushchairs.
Dirty homes and unkept gardens.
Shall I continue?

I suppose that just the act of finding another person common is common.

womble - as as out and out U according to the quiz, I always say Corrie! I also say telly, and would use the anglicised spelling. I agree with other posters that one can be wealthy and “common”. I know plenty who are. (Not that I’m judgemental ?)

I was taught that roots on died hair and painted toenails were common, just look at us now!!!

I agree Misadventure!

I always think boasting is common, regardless of what a person may have. Its what I tell my grandsons. Its vulgar. (Other Nan has considerably more than me, which may have something to do with it!)

My DC do not understand tge word common as my mother and especially my MiL used it. It has nothing to do with being poor, working class; accent etc and everything to do with vulgar behaviour.
For example if you are rich an d have a huge TV , lots of flashy gold jewellery and show off about how much things cost , that's common. Te upper classes never do this
If you are poor working class but behave decently, and dress modestly you are not common. Nothing to do with accent , dressing up or etiquette.

In Scotland all private girls' schools had the rules the rest of you associate with convent schools, so I am guessing you lot were all brought up south of the border!

I agree the word common when I was a child had nothing to do with class and all to do with morality!

Any behaviour stigmatised as common in women or girls was the type of thing that would lead men to believe we would be easy to get into bed. It covered all the things you have mentioned, plus chipped nail varnish, too much make up, mini-skirts, according to my father, and according to my maternal grandmother silver party shoes, or even worse gold ones, things "no decent woman would ever wear". Being seen without a school hat when otherwise in school uniform AND WITHOUT GLOVES was a mortal sin, in a day and age, when only a very few of our grandmothers still wore both when outside.

Top of my list must be tattoos, especially visible ones. (Worst of all are tattooed eyebrows.) The "trout pout". Smoking, but especially in the street. Dropping litter. Using the f-word as a punctuation mark. Cars or furniture dumped in front gardens. Chipped nail polish. Calling Coronation Street "Corrie" or talking about going to the Footie. Orange tans. Washing yourself in the kitchen sink. Calling lunch "dinner". (I could go on.)

I went to a girls' grammar school which as well as the strict enforcement of rules regarding wearing hats and gloves, changing into indoor shoes, only carrying money in the little home-made pocket we were forced to sew on to our (big!!) school knickers also had another little gem we were meant to adhere to.........'refined speech,modulated voices and self-control are at all times desirable.'
Water off a duck's back to most of us.

Black bras under white blouses! Considered common in the early sixties.

I remember being lectured about lots of things mentioned in here, but mainly eating in the street, (still can’t do it), putting your knife in your mouth, talking with your mouth full, visible tattoos (though they’re more common in the other sense now), as are the following things; walking round with your coat/blazer undone, huge earrings and visible underwear.

I was wondering about the 'scouse eyebrows' as well.

I would like to add the 'Croydon Facelift' hairdo to the common list. Hair pulled back so tightly it gives you a facelift, which usually only serves to emphasise the tattoos on the neck. Eeek!

The "common" thing in our house, from AC to 3GS is people not putting their knife and fork together when they have finished their meal. ??

That should be ... he said that Butlins was common...