To think 'U' and 'Non-U' are defunct concepts in 2015?

[StrawberryTeaLeaf]

I'm as partial to a bit of Nancy Mitford as the next woman but I'm a bit taken aback to read references to U/non U twice in one week. Apparently quite seriously.

Do many people still think in these terms?

One thing that Americans of all social groups agree on is that we never say "toilet" to refer to the room that the actual toilet is housed in. It's bathroom (whether there is a bath tub in it or not), restroom, or powder room.

I also think u and non u was originally an in joke between the Mitford girls, as pp said.

I was taught by my mother never to say toilet or pardon etc but it's just what was acceptable to certain people at the time.

Never heard anyone use u/non u in rl and when I see it used seriously on here I'm afraid I do make a judgement about the user; that they sound incredibly pretentious and rather silly, I certainly don't think ooh a member of the upper classes.

My parents both say lavatory or lav, and they are from very working-class backgrounds. I married a man who says toilet but is probably posher than my family by most people's standards, and I have taught my children (and myself) to say toilet on the grounds that (1) absolutely everybody knows what it means and (2) continuing to say lavatory while living with someone who unselfconsciously says toilet might have sounded like trying to correct him.

I do say sofa though - that's deeply ingrained (the word itself, not any sense that other alternatives are wrong).

I would rather die than say 'toilet' Unfortunately my privately educated sons say it. I'll have to LTBs

Say potty, derxa, sorted. Your kids will love it, too if they are any older than 6, especially if you say it in front of their mates.