Pudding or Dessert - which one is 'posher'?

[WhichOneIsPosher]

Sitting watching Bake Off with DH and Alison Hammond has commented in a joking way to Paul Hollywood that he calls dessert 'pudding' instead. DH and I have been debating on whether the word dessert is posher than pudding. What's your thoughts on this vital topic of discussion??

Surprised by the number of people who are native speakers but don’t know the more common history elements of English and its association with class.
Pudding was used by the WC and UC and applies to any sweet food after supper (for UC) or dinner (served at midday for WC) Thr type of food has no bearing on this - I.e cheesecake V jam roll polly.
Dessert is the word the aspiring middle class adopted to look “posh”
This is why you have lots of people saying ‘we called it pudding and definitely not posh.

Lots of other French words fall in to the same category and are MC words
Setiee, serviette, pardon, toilet are all examples of this.

I’m surprised by all the deletions - I remember the original posts (I replied to them) and they were completely inoffensive.

I think a napkin is cloth and a paper napkin is known as a serviette by some people?

So I would say napkin meaning the cloth ones and then do we need paper napkins for a party / picnic etc.

Pubs have lounges. Houses have sitting rooms and drawing rooms.

Pudding is definitely the upper class word. Dessert is for Lower class thinking they are being posh.

That’s a paper napkin ;)

Yes. The D word sets my teeth on edge. See also pudding wine - but I’m probably wrong on that one.

Ireland, so dessert (pudding only heard on TV).

When I was in school we had a nun who was so very posh (she thought, having lived in France) who pronounced it dezAIR. Years later I figured out that her pronunciation was of the French desert (deZ) rather than dessert (deSS) . Haha, as if we didn't know she was from the Irish midlands!

Any word that sounds like it has French roots is generally not considered posh.

Also any word that is a euphemism is considered not posh. (Afters, sweet, passed away, well to do)

Both used by the aspiring middle classes trying to sound posh by using French-ish vocab. Simple, plain, direct, Anglo-Saxon vocab for every day things = more posh. Pudding. 😋

@User14March
I disagree. I think a paper napkin is sturdier; a serviette is almost translucent.
I actually call both napkins, but I think in the 1950s when the dispenser things were first introduced in milk bars/coffee shops, they were called serviettes and I think the vintage name is apt and rather nice.

Even now on television, journalists will state that someone has "passed". Passed what? They've ( sadly) died.

OMG don’t add “nanny” into the mix. Now I don’t know if you’re talking about your grandmother or a lady paid to look after you 😂

I think sitting room is ok/better if it's smaller scale.

I LOATHE the word "lounge ". It really does set my teeth on edge

TV room? 😉

@gcsedilemma disagree, a serviette has always been an affectation for napkin.

https://allpoetry.com/How-To-Get-On-In-Society

Betjeman nailed it.

Pudding. My DF was a stickler for U language which was odd for a predominantly French speaking household.
I had a lot of MC friends growing up and sometimes I'd forget and say lounge at home. My DF would retort with 'I'm sorry, but do we live in an airport?'

I've read some of these earlier replies to DH and his response was "so it's quite mixed then?" Um no the majority think pudding is a posher word!

The upper classes use pudding
Dessert or sweet is a middle-class affectation, as are fish knives

Nor will you find a lounge in an uc house

Regularly

If one has money, one uses parfum (not perfume - the watered down version, or scent)

No, pudding is pudding whatever it comprises
Anything else is not upper class

Was she small and fair-haired and called Sister Imelda, @crosscross ??? If so, I’m highly tickled, because that’s pretty much the only thing I remember about her, though I suspect she was actually pretty cool by the standards of our other nuns. Or maybe she and your nun had both been postulants at a convent with Notions?

What everyone else said — pudding is U. And, fact fans, dessert is technically a separate course, eaten at formal meals after the pudding. Sometimes, as a pp mentioned, fruit, formally eaten, but can also be a table laid out with an array of dried fruit, nuts etc. I only encountered this at Oxford High Tables, where you would leave the table after pudding and withdraw to the SCR for dessert and port.