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AIBU?

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Original poster

Is this a middle class saying?

478 replies

Toblecorleone · 17/12/2023 19:36

Light hearted!

earlier today DH and I took DD to a small petting zoo type place. Not many people there and at one point it was just us and another woman with a girl aged about 3. Woman seemed quite posh, well spoken, both dressed rather posh - the woman was explaining something about guinea pigs to her daughter and then broke off and said “do you want bog?”

The girl said she did so off they went to find the toilets. I was quite suprised by the this phrase from someone who seemed so well spoken but DH says it’s a very middle class saying and he’d have thought “toilet” would have sounded more “common”.

I totally disagree!! Before anyone starts I know it doesn’t matter, I’m just amused by it and interested in how others would perceive this saying?!

YABU - Bog is very middle class
YANBU - bog is common talk

OP posts:
BathshebaKnickerStickers · 17/12/2023 20:35

That’s up there with my DH’s gran who once asked (of my 8 week old) - “Is she off the tit”

Hbh17 · 17/12/2023 20:35

This all reminds me of Jilly Cooper's immortal line, "Mummy says 'pardon' is a much worse word than 'f*ck'" 🤣

Vet73 · 17/12/2023 20:36

I always say bathroom, even if I mean toilet. I grew up v v v working class. My parents always said they needed to “pay a visit”

Newsenmum · 17/12/2023 20:36

No!!!

FastnetLundyRockall · 17/12/2023 20:36

Bog is working class and 1980s!

HalebiHabibti · 17/12/2023 20:37

On a related note to this thread, I have a different odd saying I heard today - a mum told her kids that if they pressed all the buttons in the elevator then that would be "witch-calling territory" :/ has anyone else ever heard that one before?!

Zone2NorthLondon · 17/12/2023 20:37

@Toblecorleone thank you for kicking off a hoot of a thread. Manners & syntax regard the bogs

tootiredtoocare · 17/12/2023 20:37

Working working class. We use toilet. I'd consider 'bog' to be crude, tbh.

Creepybookworm · 17/12/2023 20:37

I work in a public building where I am asked if there are public toilets numerous times a day. I can confirm that every nearly person says toilet. They also manage it without shuddering.

PhulNana · 17/12/2023 20:38

@ClareBlue

Toilet meant something else to upper class. It was fixing makeup, hair pieces and perfuming yourself,

I have witnessed comical misunderstandings around 'toilet water'. Very very posh (or literate) people might use the French word and say or write e.g. 'she was fastidious about her toilette'.

Beautiful3 · 17/12/2023 20:38

Bog is at the bottom! Haven't heard that since primary school, when my friend would say it. She was from a poor background. I've noticed posh people say, ladies/bathroom/lavatory etc but never bog!!!

funinthesun19 · 17/12/2023 20:39

Loo sounds the most MC to me, especially if you nip there.

This.

Loo 100% sounds middle class.

Corgiowner · 17/12/2023 20:39

This thread has got me thinking I have a friends who calls the loo “the conveniences”. The first time she asked me if “I needed to use the conveniences” I thought she was joking and laughed 😜

Middleagedmeangirls · 17/12/2023 20:40

@TisTheDarnSeason

I work with mainly working class young people in a fairly deprived London borough. They all say 'are you going Nandos' or 'I went Nandos'. They never say going to or went to. Of all their little idiosyncrasies that's the one that drives me mad.

Thinking about it, I've never heard one of them refer to a 'bog'. They nearly always say toilet or ladies/gents. To me bog is a very old fashioned and vulgar working class London word.

I'm old and MC and I say loo.

echt · 17/12/2023 20:41

Bog for lavatory was childhood slang in the 60s.

More interesting is the contraction: missing out "to go to the bog".

Go bog is like baby instead of my/the baby - twee and boak-inducing.

Toottooot · 17/12/2023 20:41

Far’s ih bog min?

LauderSyme · 17/12/2023 20:41

I think the Sir John Betjeman poem is a gentle satire poking fun at nouveau-riche middle class wannabees, who like to ape the social graces of the genuinely old moneyed class, but are doomed to always have inherently less taste and to try that little bit too hard.

LakieLady · 17/12/2023 20:41

fishfingersandtoes · 17/12/2023 20:32

Bog is more house of lords, some of those lot are very low born. I'm thinking, if we're talking about going for a shit and wanting to impress, do it how the royals do: CALL THE PORT AUTHORITY! There's been a release!
That's what the truly smart people say.

My grandfather, who had been in the navy in WW1, used to say that he was "Going to sink the Bismarck" when he was going for a crap.

FriedasCarLoad · 17/12/2023 20:42

narniabusiness · 17/12/2023 20:12

Nancy Mitford wrote the U and Non U lists as a bit of a light newspaper column in the beginning but it proved to be very popular. The Non U words were often French in derivation - hence Toilet and Serviette. Why she had a downer on French words I don’t know. She lived in France for much of the latter half of her life.

Show quote history

I think it's because they were often used by lower-middle class people who were attempting to sound upper-middle class.

Social climbing was definitely not acceptable, particularly when done badly 😉

Pelham678 · 17/12/2023 20:42

The upper middle/upper classes don't need this to work out whether or not you 'fit'. They just ask you where you went to school/uni...

MargaritaThyme · 17/12/2023 20:43

I find bog, toilet & lavatory are all frightfully common expressions. Shitehouse with the obligatory glottal stop, of course, is far more acceptable in middle class circles.

Ami I doing this right? 😉

Original poster
Toblecorleone · 17/12/2023 20:43

She definitely meant toilet, it was very obvious that the child needed the toilet at this point.

we’re in Yorkshire if that makes a difference.

OP posts:
PleaseBePacific · 17/12/2023 20:45

Hollowgast · 17/12/2023 20:18

I think the polite term is "Dump station"

I prefer slasher or crapper depending on the reason for the visit

Lifeomars · 17/12/2023 20:45

JenJenJenJenJenJen · 17/12/2023 19:39

Was it Waynetta Slob post Lottery win?

I love Wayne and Waynetta and that is a classic sketch

3WildOnes · 17/12/2023 20:47

I think Loo is MC. I was always told off for saying toilet as a child and still can't bring myself to say it. I think Bog can be UC or LWC. My UC relatives do say bog.