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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:
LimePi · 17/12/2023 21:20

Id say it is upper class than middle class

Frasers · 17/12/2023 21:20

Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain · 17/12/2023 21:17

Seems like the posher you are the dirtier language you use!

What would their parents say if they knew?! snigger

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That’s not right and I think the poster or her kids are taking the piss. No one posh stands up and says excuse me where it rhe shitter or pisser 😂

LittleGlowingOblong · 17/12/2023 21:21

I associate “bog” as being quite an Irish thing. That said, I used to quite a lot of posh Irish people so who knows!

RosesAndHellebores · 17/12/2023 21:21

I'm 63 and quite posh.

On a shopping list I write "bog roll"

At High School, private, in the 70s there were bogs

When the children were small I usually said do you need a wee wee and off we went.

When we have visitors we call it the downstairs loo, upstairs we refer to bathroom because the upstairs toilets are in the bathrooms.

If I am out and need a wee, I ask where the ladies' is or follow the signs. Not sure anyone would understand "where is the gender neutral facility please" which is probably correct nowadays.

Depending who I am with/addressing, I might vary what I say. At work - maintenance team/students/staff, I probably say "ladies' toilets in building name, at home we go for a wee or a tiddle.

At friends' houses I know where to go, if at a new friend's house, I'd probably ask for the loo.

On the whole, I don't say it at all very much and I don't particularly care what anyone else calls it.

What matters is if people are kind and pleasant and genuine - if they are, they can call it what they like.

I can only imagine for those who care over much, that they think their sh1t doesn't stink.

sunglassesonthetable · 17/12/2023 21:21

No one posh stands up and says excuse me where it rhe shitter or pisser 😂

Have you been to boarding school?

ButterBastardBeans · 17/12/2023 21:21

Would one like to shake ones lettuce.

Wolvesart · 17/12/2023 21:21

It’s also an old fashioned kinda man-speak phase. Just one rung above ‘I’m going for a slash”.

I usually struggle with phrases or words that used to be less accepted when I was little. For example, nobody would ever call their ‘tummy’ a ‘belly’ even though it did have a ‘belly button’ - so I still wince at ‘belly’. The worst one for me thought is ‘pee’ - it was considered really vulgar to say pee or piss but ‘wee’ was acceptable. I still think pee sounds awful.

Hollowgast · 17/12/2023 21:22

PhulNana · 17/12/2023 21:13

I have a colleague who says he's going to 'drop off a job lot'.

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"Launching a dreadnought" can also be used in polite company.

SoySaucePls · 17/12/2023 21:22

It’s old fashioned posh.

It’s from another era, another time.

sunglassesonthetable · 17/12/2023 21:23

On a shopping list I write "bog roll"

yes! Bog roll!

Calliopespa · 17/12/2023 21:23

CharlotteSometimes1 · 17/12/2023 19:44

Using the word toilet indicates your class, those in the know are aware it’s ‘common’ as are many words that aren’t traditionally English. Many people think it’s perfectly acceptable, they don’t know they’re signaling that they’re not middle class. Therefore given the choice between bog and toilet, bog wins.

You may think this is all nonsense, but that’s the class system for you. See Nancy Mitford U and NonU.

Yup. Anything designed to sound euphemistic, French or generally prettified is Non U. So serviette ( instead of napkin), pardon ( instead of “what?”) or toilet ( instead of loo or … I guess bog) are all a bit gauchely demure.

ExTheCheater · 17/12/2023 21:24

That's the most common thing I've heard in years.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 17/12/2023 21:25

My long-gone DF often used to call it the bog and if you’d heard him speak you’d have thought he was proper posh.

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 17/12/2023 21:25

Bog roll or loo roll - definitely!

10HailMarys · 17/12/2023 21:26

Toblecorleone · 17/12/2023 19:42

So are we saying bog is posher than toilet?

No.

Thepeopleversuswork · 17/12/2023 21:26

Frasers · 17/12/2023 21:19

Bog is below toilet. Not above. Both definetly not middle class. Or posh.

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I promise you a real posh person would be more likely to say "bog" than "toilet". Toilet is the antithesis of posh.

TommyNever · 17/12/2023 21:26

According to a biography I'm reading, HM the Queen always called it the shitter in a comical American accent, and the current monarch variously calls it the khazi, cludgie or gutbucket, a touch of vulgarity not surprising from a fellow whose love letters betrayed his yearning to be a tampon.

Alliwantforchristmasisbooooze · 17/12/2023 21:26

Someone I knew used to say ‘I’m touching cloth, desperate for the bog!’

Definitely not posh 🤮

Chaiselongueallday · 17/12/2023 21:26

Clarinet1 · 17/12/2023 19:39

I would suggest that “bog” is pretty common. “Loo” is acceptable virtually anywhere but this who are truly what my DM would have called “PLU” (people like us) would insist on “Lavatory” - NEVER the “T” word!

I misread and read you don't pronounce the T in Lavatory ...it's trickier than you think!

Frasers · 17/12/2023 21:26

Thepeopleversuswork · 17/12/2023 21:26

I promise you a real posh person would be more likely to say "bog" than "toilet". Toilet is the antithesis of posh.

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I promise you they would say neither.

RosesAndHellebores · 17/12/2023 21:27

Hmm, I call paper napkins serviettes, linen ones napkins. I tend to say I beg your pardon or what. It was all terribly important in the 80s. I don't think people care much now as long as people are pleasant.

I'll ask my children (late 20s, good schools and uni's). They'll know what's current.

Londonrach1 · 17/12/2023 21:27

No one says big...unless you talking about a muddy field.

Zoflorabore · 17/12/2023 21:29

Bog is as low as it gets. I’m from Liverpool and certain types use it here but they are the more rough people.

i don’t get the issue with toilet. It’s a toilet. What’s the problem with it? I mean it’s technically called a WC but I’ve never heard it called that once.

Deathbyfluffy · 17/12/2023 21:29

Bog or toilet - not even slightly middle class
Loo - middle class
Off to ask Jeeves to hold my thingy while I urinate - upper class

😅

Grimmz · 17/12/2023 21:29

I usually ask for the ladies room Smile