Snobis a pejorative term for a person who feels superior due to theirsocial class,education level, or social status in general;[1]it is sometimes used especially when they pretend to belong to these classes. The wordsnobberycame into use for the first time in England during the 1820s.
Examples
editSnobs can through time be found ingratiating themselves with a range of prominent groups — soldiers (Sparta,400 BCE), bishops (Rome, 1500), poets (Weimar, 1815) — for the primary interests of snobs is a distinction, and as its definition changes, so, naturally and immediately, will the objects of the snob's admiration.[1]
Snobbery existed also in medieval feudalaristocraticEurope when the clothing, manners, language, and tastes of every class were strictly codified by customs or law.Geoffrey Chaucer,a poet moving in the court circles, noted the provincial French spoken by thePrioressamong theCanterbury 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".[2]
Snobbery surfaced more strongly as the structure of the society changed, and thebourgeoisiehad the possibility toimitatearistocracy.[3]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.[4]
Snob victim
editThe term "snob" is often misused when describing a "gold-tap owner",[1]i.e. a person who insists on displaying (sometimes non-existent) wealth throughconspicuous consumptionofluxury goodssuch 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 characterHyacinth Bucketof the BBC comedy seriesKeeping Up Appearances.
Analysis
editWilliam Hazlittobserved, in a culture where deference to class was accepted as a positive and unifying principle,[5]"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."[6]The English novelistBulwer-Lyttonremarked in passing, "Ideas travel upwards,mannersdownwards. "[7]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 ofsocial insecurity,flourishing most where anestablishmenthas 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.[8]
Snobbatives
editGhil'ad Zuckermannproposes the termsnobbativeto refer to a pretentious, highfalutin phrase used by a person in order to sound snobbish. The term derives fromsnob+-ative,modelled uponcomparatives and superlatives.Thus, in its narrow sense, asnobbativeis a pompous (phonetic) variant of a word. Consider the followinghypercorrectpronunciations inIsraeli Hebrew:[9]: 184
- khupímis a snobbative ofkhofím(חופים), which means "beaches";
- tsorfátis a snobbative oftsarfát(צרפת), which refers to "France";
- amánis a snobbative ofomán(אמן), which means "artist".[9]: 184
A non-hypercorrect example in Israeli Hebrew isfilozófya,a snobbative offilosófya(פילוסופיה), which means "philosophy".[9]: 184 The snobbativefilozófya(withz) was inspired by the pronunciation of the Israeli Hebrew wordפילוסופיה by German Jewish professors of philosophy, whose speech was characterized byintervocalic voicingof thesas in theirGermanmother tongue.[9]: 190
See also
edit
- Arrogance
- Assertiveness
- Boasting,something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind
- Confidence
- Chronological snobbery
- Classism
- Contempt
- Discrimination
- Egotism
- Elitism
- Emotional insecurity
- Entitlement
- Envy
- Four Yorkshiremen sketch
- Greed
- Inferiority complex
- Jealousy
- Narcissism
- Prejudice
- Prestige
- Pride
- Privilege
- Prima donna
- Queen bee
- Respectability
- Social climber
- Superiority
- Superiority complex
- Supremacy
- The Book of Snobs
- The Snob(1924 film)
- Vanity
References
edit- ^abcDe Botton, A. (2004),Status Anxiety.London: Hamish Hamilton
- ^Rothwell, "Stratford Atte Bowe re-visited"The Chaucer Review,2001.
- ^Gartman, David (2002)."Bourdieu's Theory of Cultural Change: Explication, Application, Critique".Sociological Theory.20(2): 255–277.doi:10.1111/1467-9558.00162.ISSN0735-2751.JSTOR3108649.
- ^Friedman, Sam; Reeves, Aaron (April 2020)."From Aristocratic to Ordinary: Shifting Modes of Elite Distinction".American Sociological Review.85(2): 323–350.doi:10.1177/0003122420912941.ISSN0003-1224.
- ^The social historianG.M. Trevelyanreferred to the deferential principle in British society as "beneficent snobbery", according to Ray 1955:24.
- ^Hazlitt,Conversations with Northcote,quoted in Gordon N. Ray, "Thackeray's 'Book of Snobs'",Nineteenth-Century Fiction10.1 (June 1955:22-33) p. 25; Ray examines the context of snobbery in contemporaneous society.
- ^Bulwer-Lytton,England and the English,noted in Ray 1955:24.
- ^See: Ray 1955:25f.
- ^abcdZuckermann, Ghil'ad(2003),Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew,Palgrave MacmillanISBN9781403917232/ISBN9781403938695
External links
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- 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?"