Classless

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:48 AM -0500 1/31/08, David Donnell wrote:
>This stanza from John Lennon's song "Working Class Hero" is where I
>first heard the word "classless", as a 12 yr old in 1970:
>
>[...] A working class hero is something to be
>Keep you doped with religion and sex and tv
>And you think you're so clever and classless and free
>But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see [...]
>
>Also, btw, the opposite of "classy" or "having class", in my book,
>would be "unclassy".

Mebbe so, but "classless" wouldn't necessarily be the opposite of
"classy".  "Unlucky" (the opposite of "lucky") isn't quite the same
as "luckless" ('without luck').  "Uncharming" isn't quite the same as
"charmless".  I see no problem in the language including both
"unclassy" and "classless"--although granted the latter will remain
ambiguous, given the British sense exemplified in "a classless
society" or the Lennon line.  (In my mind I can hear him sing the
next line about "fookin peasants".)

LH

>
>However, the word "classy" itself has always struck me as being
>somehow "unclassy"--as if there is perhaps an unintended irony when
>people use it. (But I'll have to thenk about that.)
>
>DD
>Missourian @ NYC
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
>>Subject:      Re: Classless
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>>One can assume, I assume, that the cited U wasn't Harvard, since "common"
>>>there has an altogether different meaning.
>>
>>Sorry, brevity the soul of obscurity again. I was thinking of the
>>U/non-U distinction as propounded in mid-century by Diana Mitford et
>>al. -- U being upper class.
>>
>>I know the Boston area abounds in commons. Also in squares which
>>aren't square. Near Tufts U, where I did grad school, there are Davis
>>Square, Inman Square, Ball Square, and pretty much every other
>>intersection of major streets is a Square too (Harvard Square and
>>Brattle Square making a very nice sort of hourglass between them),
>>and one thing they nearly all have in common is not being rectilinear
>>quadrilaterals. The intersections that _are_ square are generally too
>>insignficant to be Squares.
>>
>>Oops. Tangent. Sorry. How classless of me. (Wait... I just had class
>>today, from 3 to 6 this afternoon.)
>>
>>James Harbeck.
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org