![Ward McAllister caricature (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Ward_McAllister_caricature_%28cropped%29.jpg)
''Snob'' is a pejorative term for a person who believes there is a correlation between
social status
Social status is the level of social value a person is considered to possess. More specifically, it refers to the relative level of respect, honour, assumed competence, and deference accorded to people, groups, and organizations in a society. Stat ...
(including physical appearance) and human worth.
[De Botton, A. (2004), ''Status Anxiety''. London: Hamish Hamilton] ''Snob'' also refers to a person who feels superiority over those from lower
social class
A social class is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the Upper class, upper, Middle class, middle and Working class, lower classes. Membership in a social class can for ...
es, education levels, or other social areas. The word ''snobbery'' came into use for the first time in England during the 1820s.
Examples
Snobs can through time be found ingratiating themselves with a range of prominent groups – soldiers (
Sparta
Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...
, 400 BCE), bishops (Rome, 1500), poets (Weimar, 1815), farmers (China, 1967) – for the primary interests of snobs is distinction, and as its definition changes, so, naturally and immediately, will the objects of the snob's admiration.
Snobbery existed also in mediaeval feudal aristocratic Europe, when the clothing, manners, language and tastes of every class were strictly codified by customs or law.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
, a poet moving in the court circles, noted the provincial French spoken by the Prioress among the
Canterbury pilgrims:
And French she spoke full fair and fetisly
After the school of Stratford atte Bowe,
For French of Paris was to her unknowe.
William Rothwell notes "the simplistic contrast between the 'pure' French of Paris and her 'defective' French of Stratford atte Bowe that would invite disparagement".
Snobbery surfaced more strongly as the structure of the society changed, and the
bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
had the possibility to ''imitate''
aristocracy
Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'.
At t ...
. Snobbery appears when elements of culture are perceived as belonging to an aristocracy or elite, and some people (the snobs) feel that the mere adoption of the fashion and tastes of the elite or aristocracy is sufficient to include someone in the elites, upper classes or aristocracy.
Snob victim
The term "snob" is often misused when describing a "gold-tap owner",
i.e. a person who insists on displaying (sometimes non-existent) wealth through
conspicuous consumption
In sociology and in economics, the term conspicuous consumption describes and explains the consumer practice of buying and using goods of a higher quality, price, or in greater quantity than practical. In 1899, the sociologist Thorstein Veblen co ...
of
luxury goods
In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to n ...
such as clothes, jewelry, cars etc. Displaying awards or talents in a rude manner, boasting, is a form of snobbery. A popular example of a "snob victim" is the television character
Hyacinth Bucket
Hyacinth Bucket is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom ''Keeping Up Appearances'', portrayed by Patricia Routledge. Routledge won a British Comedy Award in 1991, and was nominated for two BAFTA awards in 1992 and 1993 for her portrayal.
Hy ...
of the BBC comedy series ''
Keeping Up Appearances
''Keeping Up Appearances'' is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke. It originally aired on BBC1 from 1990 to 1995 with two specials airing in 1997 and 2008 on PBS. The central character is an eccentric and snobbish middle class s ...
''.
Analysis
William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt (10 April 177818 September 1830) was an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English lan ...
observed, in a culture where deference to class was accepted as a positive and unifying principle, "Fashion is gentility running away from vulgarity, and afraid of being overtaken by it," adding subversively, "It is a sign the two things are not very far apart." The English novelist
Bulwer-Lytton Bulwer-Lytton is a surname, and may refer to:
* Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–1873), novelist and politician
* Rosina Bulwer Lytton (1802–1882), feminist writer and wife of Edward Bulwer-Lytton
* Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of ...
remarked in passing, "Ideas travel upwards, ''manners'' downwards." It was not the deeply ingrained and fundamentally accepted idea of "one's betters" that has marked snobbery in traditional European and American culture, but "aping one's betters".
Snobbery is a defensive expression of
social insecurity
This is a list of episodes of the American situation comedy ''The Jeffersons''. A total of 253 episodes aired on CBS over 11 seasons, from January 18, 1975, through July 2, 1985.
Series overview
Episodes Season 1 (1975)
Season 2 (1975–76) ...
, flourishing most where an
establishment
Establishment may refer to:
* The Establishment, a dominant group or elite that controls a polity or an organization
* The Establishment (club), a 1960s club in London, England
* The Establishment (Pakistan), political terminology for the military ...
has become less than secure in the exercise of its traditional prerogatives, and thus it was more an organizing principle for Thackeray's glimpses of British society in the threatening atmosphere of the 1840s than it was of Hazlitt, writing in the comparative social stability of the 1820s.
[See: Ray 1955:25f.]
Snobbatives
Ghil'ad Zuckermann
Ghil'ad Zuckermann ( he, גלעד צוקרמן, ; ) is an Israeli-born language revivalist and linguist who works in contact linguistics, lexicology and the study of language, culture and identity. Zuckermann is Professor of Linguistics and Ch ...
proposes the term ''snobbative'' to refer to a pretentious, highfalutin phrase used by a person in order to sound snobbish. The term derives from ''snob'' + ''-ative'', modelled upon
comparatives and superlatives. Thus, in its narrow sense, a ''snobbative'' is a pompous (phonetic) variant of a word. Consider the following
hypercorrect
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is non-standard use of language that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a mis ...
pronunciations in
Israeli Hebrew
Israeli may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel
* Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel
* Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Mo ...
:
[ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003), ]Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew
''Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew'' is a scholarly book written in the English language by linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann, published in 2003 by Palgrave Macmillan. The book proposes a socio-philological framework for the an ...
Palgrave Macmillan
/
#''khupím'' is a snobbative of ''khofím'' (), which means "beaches";
#''tsorfát'' is a snobbative of ''tsarfát'' (), which refers to "France";
#''amán'' is a snobbative of ''omán'' (), which means "artist".
[
A non-hypercorrect example in Israeli Hebrew is ''filozófya'', a snobbative of ''filosófya'' (), which means "philosophy".][ The snobbative ''filozófya'' (with ''z'') was inspired by the pronunciation of the Israeli Hebrew word by German Jewish professors of philosophy, whose speech was characterized by intervocalic voicing of the ''s'' as in their ]German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
mother tongue.[
]
See also
References
External links
Joseph Epstein, "In a snob-free zone"
"Is there a place where one is outside all snobbish concerns—neither wanting to get in anywhere, nor needing to keep anyone else out?"
Etymologies
Ask Oxford – Ask the Experts
Merriam Webster On-line Dictionary
On-line Etymology Dictionary
{{Authority control
1820s neologisms
Class discrimination
High society (social class)
Identity politics
Labeling theory
Narcissism
Class-related slurs
Personality traits
Social status
Stereotypes of the upper class
Terminology of the University of Cambridge