are you a pleb ?

[johncorrigan]

than a nyaff who has the soubriquet "thrasher".

Thanks mangerton - nyaff.....another favourite of my dad's - thanks for reminding me - gettaffyanyaff!!!!!!

[Flosshilde]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19673697

"People Lacking Everyday Basic Skills"? Well, that certainly makes Gideon Osborne a PLEB.

[salymap]

I never think about it but I may appear a pleb to some and hopelessly highbrow to others- it depends where the other person is coming from. [I think ]

[MrGongGong]

"People Lacking Everyday Basic Skills"? Well, that certainly makes Gideon Osborne a PLEB.

do CANOE know about this misattribution ?

[EdgeleyRob]

I work with plenty of plebs but apparently I'm a numpty,Not sure which is worse.

[Pabmusic]

I'm proud to be one of the Hoi polloi!

I looked up hoi polloi ('οἱ πολλοί) in Wikipedia and it said, "The Great Unwashed redirects here". Sums it up, doesn't it?

[vinteuil]

I'm proud to be one of the Hoi polloi!

... hoi polloi - 'οἱ πολλοί - the "hoi" here means "the".

So you might want to be one of "hoi polloi" - but surely not one of "the the people"

[ Should have gone to pedants' paradise ]

[Nick Armstrong]

... hoi polloi - 'οἱ πολλοί - the "hoi" here means "the".

So you might want to be one of "hoi polloi" - but surely not one of "the the people"

[ Should have gone to pedants' paradise ]

One of my bugbears too, vinsanto, despite my deprived East Anglian edyukayshun...

[Nick Armstrong]

are you, or have you ever been, a pleb ?

I think I am. It's important to know one's place in society and not get above oneself - that way anarchy lies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19673697

apparently already dubbed "gategate"

Great initial post mercs, and great thread It's made me laugh here in the City in and around which the original plebs could be found

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

walking around the London Wall bit last night Caliban i wondered how any human survives that corporate desert .. of course the CORPOCATS get the lift to the private garage and the fast lane to the Home Counties or the pied a terre in Shepherd Street, Chelsea Harbour or wherever ... the disaster that is CORPOCAT architecture is too little remarked i fear ...

btw i am old but never in any circumstance wear Lycra [whatever that is]

i was born to very poor and ailing parents who nonetheless recognised civilised values and despaired at their absence in post war Britain and cheered the great moral battles fought by Atlee's Cabinet to realise the NHS and the 44 Education Act in the face of the crippling post war debt imposed by Eisenhower to bust the Empire ... as for myself i threw stones and dust bombs from bombed buildings at the well to do in their Wolseys and Humber Hawks .... ...

[vinteuil]

... as for myself i threw stones and dust bombs from bombed buildings at the well to do in their Wolseys and Humber Hawks .... ...

... and you haven't changed one bit, my dearie

[mangerton]

I work with plenty of plebs but apparently I'm a numpty,Not sure which is worse.

Another good Scots word! I'm sure you're not. I imagine that those who describe you thus are a bunch of pagliaccis.

Explanatory note: A mildly abusive term favoured in the west of Scotland. Could be used with some accuracy to describe our present coalition government.

Pedantry note: Yes, I do realise that "pagliaccis" is pluralising an already plural word.

[mangerton]

... hoi polloi - 'οἱ πολλοί - the "hoi" here means "the".

So you might want to be one of "hoi polloi" - but surely not one of "the the people"

[ Should have gone to pedants' paradise ]

Quite, but there is a precedent, written by Ard Slok in the great "Verse and Worse". (My favourite poetry book, so that must surely make me a pleb, prole and an οi πολλοi )


Helen

Helen of Troy,
See the Heroes deploy!
'Ship Ahoy! Attaboy!'
Shout the low οi πολλοi

[Anna]

One of my bugbears too, vinsanto, despite my deprived East Anglian edyukayshun...

But surely, my Dear Caliban, your eduction merely makes you a Grammar School Oik?
I am puzzled by mangerton's 'nyaff' is that the Scottish word for naïf or knave? I think the worst insult anyone could throw at me would not be numpty (loveable half-wit) but Chav.
As for mangerton's pagliaccis. Why do the Scots insult violin players?

[vinteuil]

οí

... ahem - 'οἱ , not οí ...

[retires swiftly to pedants' corner... ]