Classless

[Wilson Gray]

My impression is the same as Jon's. "Classless" in the sense of
"having no class, no couth; lacking 'Klass with a capital K'" is
relatively new. I'd use "no-class," not "classless," unless I wanted
to describe a society that consists only of masses and no classes.

-Wilson

On 1/30/08, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Classless
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Not in HDAS either. And why? Because as of 1994 it was considerably less common than one might think.
>
>   Even today, I find fewer than 50 RG's for "classless  son-of-a-bitch" (note hyphens to elicit solid, hyphenated, and hyphenless forms) and fewer than 1000 for "classless asshole."  Four for "classless motherfucker."
>
>   None of these constructions shows up even once in Google Books.  Contrast a *quarter of a million* hits for "classy lady" alone.
>
>   So Bill's usage is easily understandable, and has been for over a century. It just seems not to have occurred to people to use it very often.
>
>   JL
>
>
>
>
> Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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> Poster: Laurence Horn
> Subject: Re: Classless
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>
> At 3:16 PM -0500 1/30/08, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
> >On Wed, Jan 30, 2008 at 07:49:31PM -0000, Michael Quinion wrote:
> >> In Bill Mullins's note, he used the word "classless". To me, perhaps from
> >> a surfeit of British preoccupations with class, that means a person who
> >> does not belong to any particular social class. He's obviously using to
> >> mean a person who lacks class. So far as I know, this won't work in
> >> British English, but is it a common US form?
> >
> >Yes, quite.
>
> I agree. But curiously, AHD4 doesn't seem to have registered this:
>
> 1. Lacking social or economic distinctions of class: a classless society.
> 2. Belonging to no particular social or economic class.
>
> Nor does the OED, although somehow their lacuna is more explicable
> for the reason Michael gives. Both entries should be adjusted
> accordingly, of course. To be sure, *classless* is compositional,
> given the relevant (count noun) sense of *class* that is claimed to
> be lacking. This sense of the noun is included in the OED s.v. CLASS,
> 5b:
>
> slang or colloq. Distinction, high quality;
> *no class*: of no worth; of low quality, inferior.
>
> but not in the AHD, whose senses include none that could make sense
> of "You got a lot of class".
>
> LH
>
>
> >
> >My favorite such use is in the Sopranos episode
> >"Commendatori", when they're in Naples being served this
> >absolutely incredible meal, and Paulie asks the Italians for
> >some "gravy--you know, red sauce," and one Italian says to the
> >other something that's subtitled, "And you thought the
> >_Germans_ were classless pieces of shit."
> >
> >Jesse Sheidlower
> >OED
>
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