海角大神

As we talked about two weeks ago, hoity-toity, hifalutin, and听濒补-诲颈-诲补 are folksy puncturers of pretension. These words have opposites in a set of terms that ooze superiority, that mock people for being 鈥渓ower class鈥� or less educated. Pleb, infra dig, and hoi polloi come directly from Latin and ancient Greek, and not by accident. No one grows up speaking the classical tongues anymore 鈥� they are 鈥減restige鈥� languages that require schooling to learn.

Pleb is taken from plebs, or plebeians, the 鈥渃ommon people鈥� of ancient Rome, the farmers, craftsmen, and bakers who were citizens but not part of the ruling classes. Pleb is found in both British and American English today, though it is pronounced and used differently. In Britain it rhymes with 鈥淒eb鈥� and means 鈥渁 member of the working classes鈥� or 鈥渁n uncultured person.鈥� It is quite derogatory and offensive, as 2012鈥檚 鈥淧lebgate鈥� demonstrated. When a group of police officers refused to open a gate for a member of Parliament, he allegedly insulted them, 鈥淏est you learn your ... place. ... You鈥檙e ... plebs,鈥� and was forced to resign as a result. In the United States, it is usually spelled plebe, rhymes with 鈥渄weeb,鈥� and refers to a first-year cadet at a military academy.

In the television series 鈥淒ownton Abbey,鈥� the Earl of Grantham reacts with horror when his heir informs him that he has gotten a job. Both the word job (Samuel Johnson described it as 鈥渁 low word鈥� and defined it as 鈥渁 low mean lucrative busy affair鈥� in 1755) and the very idea of paid work were infra dig in the early 20th century among Downton鈥檚 aristocratic set. Infra dig is short for infra dignitatem, 鈥渂eneath one鈥檚 dignity.鈥� While today most of us think paid work is a good thing, English-speakers still use infra dig, especially in Britain. This summer, for example, cookbook author Nigella Lawson excused herself for retweeting a positive review of her own book by prefacing it 鈥渇rightfully infra dig to retweet praise.鈥�

Hoi polloi comes straight from Greek, where it means 鈥渢he many.鈥� In ancient Athens, which was proud of its democracy, this was often a positive term, contrasted with hoi oligoi, 鈥渢he few.鈥� (Oligarchy is thus government by a wealthy few, for selfish purposes.) By the time it made its way into English in the 17th century, though, it had become a pejorative term. It was not good to be classed with the hoi polloi, nor was it done to say 鈥�the hoi polloi,鈥� as hoi actually is Greek for the word 鈥渢he鈥� 鈥� the phrase is redundant, like 鈥減izza pie鈥� or 鈥渢he La Brea tar pits鈥� (la brea means 鈥渢he tar鈥� in Spanish).聽

Perhaps through confusion with the similar-sounding hoity-toity, around a third of Americans use hoi polloi to mean 鈥渢he few,鈥� as in 鈥渢he luxurious lifestyles of the hoi polloi.鈥� Would it be infra dig to point this out?