The Pleb Fuss

[Coldicote]

Until ‘pleb’ hit the headlines recently I’d never heard the word. As far as I know it’s just a slang word (like many others) for silly, that one might use in a moment of annoyance. Why all the fuss, is it so offensive or just a waste of time?

[mccfluff]

its a shortened version of plebian - sort of meaning common person

[snags]

... and/or someone from the lower classes... like fluffs.

[mccfluff]

i'll have you know i'm a toff, you oik

[snags]

Pies aint posh. Pleb.

[Zeuhl]

as mcfluff says:

commonly used for many years by people of a certain class when looking down their noses at others

[Zeuhl]

Plebian is of course a term used by those who favour Latin

Scholars of Ancient Greek tend to use Hoi Polloi when referring to the 'great unwashed'

Students of Old French - Prole

For a more British approach I think you're safer with Riff Raff

[mccfluff]

they are if they're posh pies with posh stuff innit

oik

[jackthehat]

He was the handyman in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Zeuhl......I'm not convinced we'd be terribly safe with him. :o)

[Zeuhl]

LOL jth

I'd forgotten about him

Richard O'Brien (bless him) foresees Peter Stringfellow :-)

[FredPuli43]

It's a posh boys' word for the working class and meant to be insulting or dismissive. No doubt they regard themselves as patricians, from 'patricius', Latin for 'noble', the hereditary ruling and upper class elite of ancient Rome. 'Plebs' was the Latin word for the common people there. Public school boys have a bit of Latin, so use such terms.

[atalanta]

The word Plebs did not carry any stigma in Latin. The Romans well knew that the 3 classes of plebeians far outnumbered the 2 upper classes - the patricians and the Knights. They well knew that the army, on which the City and the Empire depended, had to be recruited from the Plebs. Plebeians were full citizens, and could vote whenever elections were held. The patronising use in English probably arose in the English boys' pubic schools where Latin was a major subject.

[atalanta]

OOps - I meant public schools !

[ChillDoubt]

I believe I first heard it some 35(ish) years ago as a teenager on (if memory serves me correctly) The Young Ones, one of my favourite ever TV series.
Never really deemed it that offensive in all honesty.

[Khandro]

It appears that the word wasn't used at all -only by the police. If Mitchell had really wanted to offend, he would have used something much stronger I think. In many walks of life, I have never heard the word used to someone's face as an insult.

[Coldicote]

Lots of interesting comments thank you on an issue that seems to have grown out of all proportion to its impotance.