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Classy expressions like these fill Frank McCourt's Irish childhood:
Me daughter can prepare any class of stew or fries.
If ye be any class of husband!
This 'class' is a little more than 'manner,' for the implication of 'high standard' or 'good quality.'
Is it pretty much an Irish thing?
I've only ever heard the word used in that sense orally in the movies, which are hardly good sources. Just as our language is different in written and oral form, it's a third language on the stage and screen (among other things, people take turns speaking, so we can hear, and they get to the point, so movies don't run ten hours. )
I've read, though, an observation, that if someone often uses the word "class" to describe something, it's a sign that he has none. That certainly would have been the Irish at least at one point in our history. Come to think of it, I can't remember where I read that, but it was conversation in fiction, which is that same third language or perhaps a fourth one.)
deaconB said
Yes. It's meaning #8 which is under discussion. According to The Dictionary of American Slang, this sense developed in the 1870s. The question is, is it "an Irish thing"?
I believe it is meaning #1 from Peano's posting that is referenced in Robert's original post. The stew is obviously one of a collection of common things. The husband reference could make you think twice but I think the presence of the word of makes the difference. If the quote had said, "If ye be any class husband!" I would agree with meaning #8, but "class of husband" make him one in a collection of husbands.
As far as an "Irish thing," I have no comment.
The Irish satirist Flann O'Brien used the phrase the same way Frank McCourt did; these are from his novel At Swim-Two-Birds:
The fiddle is an awkward class of a thing to carry.
Well it's not the smell of drink, I answered. What class of smell is it?
Was your pome on the subject of flowers, Mr Casey? Wordsworth was a great man for flowers. Mr Casey doesn't go in for that class of stuff, said Slug.
The meaning is close to No 1, above; simple enough to substitue "kind" for "class" and get the same sense. I have no proof but I don't think you'd find an upper class Irish speaker using this phrase so much. It may be too that those who do use it are trying to speak a bit more posh, in a mocking sort of way; I always find a bit of sly humor in it.
I haven't spent much time around Irish speakers lately, so I have no idea if it's still in use. And though we're only citing movies and books so far I have a strong feeling it was once common in converstion, and may still be.
Or perhaps it's been driven out by another use of "class", in Ireland and the UK, similar to our "class act" but applied to a wider range of things:
Did you see that movie last night. It was class.
As I read on, it does sound like same as 'kind' or 'type,' though 'any class of' often implies 'good quality' (as does 'any kind of').
Another interesting thing (maybe only interesting to me) in McCourt's childhood is 'tea' - children and adults have teas with all meals. There are mentions of milk with the tea, but only once did he reveal that a tea in that case is beef tea made from the cubes. Perhaps this tea as food is also characteristic of the Irish lexicon.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
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