If you say “afters” to mean dessert or pudding…

[BottleBlondeMachiavelli]

….where are you, your parents and/or grandparents from?

Is it a class thing, or a regionalism, or fairly neutral?

And dessert is the posh version, pudding is more common. Waiters will ask if you want to see the dessert menu, not the pudding menu.

In the South East we always used to say it , but in my house it’s fizzled out along with the actual afters

I’m from the Home Counties and no-one says ‘afters’. Shame as I think it’s adorable.

I grew up saying ‘Afters’. (Parents from the East End of London)

I taught myself to say ‘Pudding’ when I went up to Oxford (when I also stopped saying ‘lounge’, ‘serviette’ and ‘toilet’). All seems a bit sad looking back.

No, that's the wrong way round.

Pudding is what royals and upper class call it, they would never call it dessert.
In very fine dining restaurants it wouldn't be dessert.

I think it's a class thing, not regional.
The 'U' word is pudding.
Afters and dessert are both very working class/lower middle class.

Waiters are not upper class tho!
If you ate with royalty, pudding covers anything you eat for the last course, but dessert is simply fruit.

I'm another one who reading the thread realised I haven't heard it for years but was used all the time when I was a child. North West edge of the Midlands - definitely W/C. Will ask slightly posher Scottish DH if he's ever heard it. We'd also use 'sweet' thinking we were being posh. Now, I'd say pudding for everything or dessert in a Hyacinth Bucket voice as it just doesn't sound natural for me.

I’m from Manchester originally and we always called it pudding…rarely had one though, occasionally on a Sunday or if we had guests.

The Royal Family call it pudding…which is why my very working class mum called it the same, bless her 🤣 But we had ‘tea’ as our evening meal, and dinner at lunchtime, so she didn’t go full on Hyacinth Bucket 😬

I'm from Suffolk, working class, always called it "afters"

I don't think it's specifically a northern thing. We always said afters and we are from the south east.

We don't say it any more but that's probably because we don't have it! It's more of a, 'does anyone want any fruit?!'

Is there a British influence in your family @mathanxiety ?
I’m Irish and I’ve never heard pudding used here except for actual puddings such as plum pudding, bread and butter pudding, Eve’s pudding. Or black/white pudding 🤔
Dessert is what’s usually said in my own experience. I don’t really hear ‘afters’ either.

I’m a southerner and it was pudding for us.

No, ‘pudding’ is the most UC version. ‘Dessert’, yes, is almost invariably used in restaurants (which I think has probably driven the word ‘dessert’ ‘s increased use), but technically ‘dessert’ is a separate course entirely, not the sweet course consisting of tart, icecream, pies, cobblers, cake, sticky toffee pudding, meringue etc etc after a main course — it’s yet another course served after the table has been cleared (‘desservi’) consisting only of storeroom foods like nuts, dried and fresh fruit, preserved things etc.

I’ve only actually ever had it at Oxford college High Tables, where, after grace is said at the end of the pudding course of the ‘main’ meal, at some colleges, you will then go back to the senior common room for dessert and port etc.

My sense is that @mathanxiety’s family is quite high up the social class rankings, yes.

Not quite sure how to take that tbh 🤔

Sorry, it wasn’t meant to be weird! Only that as she appears to have had the same username for a long time, and although I NC roughly weekly, I’ve been here since 2011, and recognise her from random threads down the years, including Craicnet ones, and Irish threads before Craicnet. To cut a long story short, I have a vague memory that things she’s said about her family suggest a quite old money Dublin background.

ETA. I could be misremembering — she could be from a small farm in Longford!

North West. Afters for us (didn't get them very often though)

I say dessert or pudding , I see pudding as a hearty steamed sponge & custard type of thing , whereas dessert is lighter .
From Wiltshire .

I thought she was an American, mid West. Never had a hint of old money from her posts.

Anyway

Afters - working class
Sweet and dessert Working / lower middle
Pudding - middle/ upper class

Almost always afters, sometimes dessert but never, ever, call it pudding. Cockney girl.

Northern but very Middle class /upper middle - always said pudding, even "dessert" wasn't a word we used!
Not sure if that's just my weird family though.

I'm not sure that's correct. Dessert is more lower middle class I think? (And a lot of restaurants are more lower MC anyway)

Yes, I recognise her username too. Definitely Irish, from Dublin, though living in the States now, but maybe some British heritage somewhere which might account for the use of pudding, which I find unusual. But maybe it’s just a D4 sort of thing, I’m not too certain.

Sorry for discussing you like this @mathanxiety!! Does everyone where you’re from in Dublin say pudding I wonder? I’m further south and nobody I know does.