to think that perhaps I am far to common for Mumsnet?

[teameric]

I live in a council flat, am as cockney as they come, swear like an old docker, and like a good row, just think that I'm a bit of a fish out of water on here sometimes.

I find that being around common people brings me out in a dreadful rash. Must be something to do with the cheap scents they use

Well everyone, I wear corblimey trousers.

("Bare" has been around for at least 10 years. It appeared at about the same time as "bate", and "pwn".)

bate = obvious.

dunno bout "pwn" na mean?

Bate is somewhat similar to "butters" as I understand it.

Pwn is what you do to noobs.

No, sorry, bate isn't the same as butters. What was I thinking?

jamie - it's a net(work) made up of mums, not a net belonging to mums, so it doesn't need an apostrophe.

I thought "butters" meant ugly.

eg "she is butters"

"butters" means ugly, my DH uses it, he's from Peckham

Yup, you pwn noobs. Sometimes referred to as "pwnage" or "a massive pwn." Occasionally, but not often, an "epic pwn." Do people say "he got sonned" over there? It used to be "he got schooled", but now it's sonned, I guess meaning that you have so thoroughly trounced someone in something as to practically be their parent?

"Bare" actually makes sense, b/c it could mean totally stripped down to its essence. So if something were "bare good", then it would be totally and utterly good.

"butters" usually refers to a woman with an ugly face and a nice body, i.e., "She would be hot, but her face."

Yes, Twinkies are def common!

n00bs!!

When I was 19 I worked in a middle school on the estate I lived on and one of the kids told a colleague that a fellow child had "taxed" his pen and "pegged" it. Oh how old we all felt!!

Surely it's uber common to live somewhere where to "tax" something means to steal it

Obviously using word uber is not common enough so I will change it to "well common"

Of course we don't say common here...we say trashy or similar. How do you pronounce "chav" anyway? Just like it's spelled?

I'm making 'tea'... I'm dead common.
(as opposed to dinner... I'm northern)

I have found that it doesn't matter how common you are here. The trick is to be ubiquitous.

When I was growing up I had a crazy back-woods hillbilly of a great grandmother. She was from rural Kentucky and considered "common" to be a high compliment because it meant you didn't put on airs. :0

dinner is what you eat in the middle of the day, so obviously you would be making tea

When I go back to visit my mum where I grow up "chav" is pronounced "neighbour"

I am WELDY common!

And PRAAAHD of it!

hello, can I join? Y'see I always thought I was posh - went to school on a council estate and was the posh one, and have always been posher than boyfriends, til a) I met my husband and b) I joined Mumsnet and realised I am SO not posh. Just as well we have moved to East London where I guess my kids will be the 'posh ones'.

Ps I LOVE 'bait' - it means obvious. As in, 'ahhhh, don't text under the table like that, it's so bait'.Useful for me as a Drama teacher.

what did you do secondcoming??????

I don't know whether I'm common or not, but I got called a pleb on mn a couple of days ago Haven't heard that word since the 1980's!

All this is v simple.

Common is just short for commoner, (don't cha know), so if you aren't titled you're a commoner. Simples. (We shall properly ignore day-tripping life peers, natch.)

So if you aren't titled it is well easy innit to have a scale of being common, even though it is an absolute. The higher you rank in the grand scheme of UK social strata, the 'less common' you are.

I'm as common as as a common thing on a village common (ish), but I happen to know the daughter of a marquis is a regular MNer, as is a certain almost-nearly HRH.

So, no, you're not too common and it seems you can't be too high born for MN either.