New and Unholy Coinage

madmouth Hm. Maybe I'm just a big ironic jerk, then. I always think of some schmoe with a beetling unibrow saying "A classy dame like that you gotta wine and dine before she puts out" (which I suppose is an old style of speech anyway, debarring 'classy' from the list on principle).

May 1, 2009

dontcry I guess if classy is used as a substitute for classist, then it could have a negative connotation. Otherwise, it is my experience that classy, while possibly going out of style as an adjective, is good! Other oldies, but goodies:
The cat's meow
Creme de la creme
A#1
Tops
Bitchin'
Far out.... May 1, 2009

yarb You speak for me too, cb. I've heard it used sarcastically, but as any word might be, but it's certainly not a "herald of bad taste". Apr 30, 2009

bilby Hey, what's that about fluff-hunters? Apr 30, 2009

chained_bear I have no idea what this conversation's about, but I have been watching it with interest. Maybe I'm not plugged in to culture sufficiently, but in my small circle there is no stigma attached to the word classy at all. Perhaps it's because our class system in the United States is rather more invisible than that in Britain, etc. (though still exists, even though we boast that we don't have one). I would say that it's slightly old-fashioned in the sense that I don't think younger people use it at all—but there are times when no other word will do. I've never actually heard that its origins came from any kind of class system, though that stands to reason.

I used it a few months ago describing a public figure, and I meant it in a complimentary way.

Edit: The OED lists its first usage as 1891:
1891 S. J. DUNCAN Amer. Girl in London 228 Why didn't one of you go? Not classy enough, eh? 1892 Temple Bar Nov. 393 Her successor is the ‘smart’ young married woman,..who is chic and ‘classy’. 1899 E. PHILLPOTTS Human Boy 174 He said a man who sold pills and toothbrushes..could not be considered a classy chemist. 1903 ‘MARJORIBANKS’ Fluff-Hunters 94 Was she classy, well-turned out, and all that sort of thing? 1929 Daily Express 2 Jan. 4/2 An assemblage as sophisticated and classy as ever gathered under one roof.

As the OED also defines "class" as separate from "the masses," one wonders why the opposite adjective to classy is not massy. ... I may start using it. :) Apr 30, 2009

yarb I sense it's most common these days when referring to sports performers or performances. But searching online newspapers reveals many other recent examples - e.g. this headline from last month. Apr 30, 2009

madmouth duly humbled. I had thought it'd have been born in a context which has no class at all (there was still a smidgen in the 50s).

now, has the meaning changed since the origin of the word? at this point (according to my understanding of the word), nobody can say "classy" without declaring their trashiness; it's the herald of bad taste.

Apr 30, 2009

yarb And as I grew up in the UK in the '80s it was (still is) a very common word to signify stylishness - one might speak of a "classy" football player, motor car, restaurant. But it definitely goes back much further than that; in fact it feels slightly old-fashioned now. Apr 30, 2009

rolig Classy, in the sense of "stylish" has been around in American English at least since the 1940s. The book British and American English since 1900 by Eric Partridge and John Williams Clark, published in 1951, notes: "British swanky more or less equals American classy" (and that was all I was shown in the snippet view of Google Book Search). But there are lots of examples. Apr 30, 2009

madmouth "classy" is old? gimme some examples before the 90s Apr 30, 2009

chained_bear (That could be remedied by saying it's "Newish and Unholy"...)

I could see this list becoming frightfully long. Eeeh. Apr 29, 2009

rolig It's about time someone made this list. Thanks, MM! (Though some of these – e.g. hubby, classy, celeb – are probably a little old for this list.) Apr 29, 2009