Talk:Chattering classes

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I disagree with this article. I have never been aware of the term being used in anything other than a derogatory way, at least in a mild sense. I understand the term to refer to more or less frivolous and self-serving people.

My first reaction to this article was that it must have been written by a PR person for one of this very class!!

I propose to change the tone of the article. Any comments? Wibblywobbly 16:28, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

I contributed to this article and I am certainly not doing PR for these people!! I agree that I have never heard of it being used in anything but a negative way, but IMHO we shouldn't necessarily confuse our own personal experience with use in general - so should be cautious. Alex Swanson 18:43, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Look at the Oxford Dictionary definition. Its not always used in a derogatory way. Its possible that all Wikipedia contributors are members. Lumos3 19:41, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Hi Swanson, fair point, but I do think the gist (not exclusively, of course) of the article should reflect the general use, which is clearly derogatory (at least in a mild way). I'm going to do a google and see if I can find some samples. The PR line was tongue-in-cheek, no offence! :-) Paulc1001 09:01, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Lumos, I read the OED of course and it says "frequently derogatory". The article clearly implies "less than frequent". Frankly, the OED definition is slightly different to my image of it, but that probably often happens to me! I note that the defintition in OED seems to be from 1989 and this is the sort of newly-coined phrase whose sense could evolve a lot in a decade and a half. I suggest that the generally used sense has become somewhat more derogatory by now? Paulc1001 09:01, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

The OED [1] has 5 citations as examples of use. The 2 most recent are in 1996 and 2000 and these appear to refer to the CCs in the same way in which the Wikipedia article describes them. Lumos3 09:10, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

I must admit I don't see how those examples are anything except derogatory to a greater or lesser extent, or perhaps neutral at best. I don't agree that the article reflects the OED. The OED says "freq. derogatory" immediately, whereas the article mentions it almost as an after-thought. I admit, however, that this discussion and the related articles has led me to understand the term a little differently than before. Note, without tone of voice here please read this in a friendly discussion tone! Wibblywobbly 11:36, 11 November 2005 (UTC)