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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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U
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A pernicious distinction, typical of the English obsession with class, between idioms and customs which are supposedly upper-class (U) or not (non-U), with the implication that the latter are incorrect. The terms were first used in 1954 by A.S.C. Ross as convenient abbreviations in a serious context; he was writing in a philological journal about class differences in language and pronunciation. Popularized by Nancy *Mitford (in Noblesse Oblige 1956), they had wide currency in the 1960s and 1970s.
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