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Snob

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	Snob
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	Topics Snob Topic Home A snob, guilty of snobbery, is someone who adopts the worldview that some people are inherently inferior to him/her for any one of a variety of reasons including real or supposed intellect, wealthWealth Wealth from the old English word "weal", which mea, which meant "well-being" or "welfare".... , educationEducation Overview Education is the process by which an individual is encouraged and enabled to develop fully his or her innate potential; it m... , ancestry, etc. Often, the form of snobbery reflects the offending individual's socio-economic background. For example, a common snobbery of the affluent is the affectation that wealth is either the cause or result of superiority, or both as in the case of privileged children. However, a form of snobbery can be adopted by someone not a part of that group; Pseudo-intellectualPseudointellectual Pseudointellectual is a pejorative term used to describe someone who engages in false intellectualism or is intellectu... is a type of snob. Such a snob imitates the manners, adopts the world-view and affects the lifestyleLifestyle In sociology, a lifestyle is the way a person lives.... of a social classSocial class Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures.... of people to which he or she aspires, but does not yet belong, and to which he or she may never belong. A snob is perceived by those being imitated as an arriviste, perhaps nouveau richeNouveau riche Nouveau riche ' is a term, usually derogatory, to describe persons who acquire wealth within their generation, and spend ... or parvenuParvenu *Parvenus* are people that are relative newcomers to a socioeconomic class.... , and the eliteElite Elite is taken from the latin, eligere, "to elect".... group closes ranks to exclude such outsiders, often by developing elaborate social codes, symbolic statusStatus symbol A status symbol is something, usually an expensive or rare object, that indicates a high social status for its owner.... and recognizable marks of language. The snobs in response refine their behavior model. Historical origins Characteristically, snobs look down on people who are part of groups that they regard as inferior or flaunt their wealth in order to make others feel inferior. Compare the points of view embodied in the informal and subjective categories of "highbrowHighbrow *Highbrow* is a colloquial synonym for intellectual or high culture, which draws its metonymy from the pseudoscience of ph... " and its contrasted "lowbrowLowbrow Lowbrow can refer to* lowbrow* low culture with its antonyms high culture or highbrow ... ". The Oxford English DictionaryOxford English Dictionary *The Oxford English Dictionary* is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press , and is generally regarded as t... finds the word snab in a 1781 document with the meaning of shoemaker with a Scottish origin. The connection between "snab", also spelled "snob", and its more familiar meaning arising in EnglandEngland Summary England is the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom.... fifty years later is not direct. The once popular etymology of snob as a contraction of the Latin phrase sine nobilitate ("without nobility") is now discredited. It is agreed, however, that the word "snob" broke into broad public usage with William Makepeace ThackerayWilliam Makepeace Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century.... 's Book of Snobs, a collection of satiric sketches that appeared in the magazine Punch and were collected and published in 1848. Thackeray's definition of "snob" then: "He who meanly admires mean things is a Snob." The "mean things" were the showy things of this world, like a secretaryship in the Queen's Cabinet, where Prime Ministers invariably retired as earlEarl An Earl or Jarl was an Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian title, meaning "chieftain" and it referred especially to chieftain... s. "Suppose in a game of life— and it is but a twopenny game after all— you are equally eager of winning. Shall you be ashamed of your ambition, or glory in it?" — Thackeray, "Autour de mon Chapeau," 1863 Thackeray had many opportunities to study snobs in action as he grew up. He was born in CalcuttaKolkata Kolkata is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal.... , IndiaFacts About India India , officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia.... , the only son of a Collector in the service of the British East India CompanyBritish East India Company The British East India Company, sometimes referred to as "John Company", was a joint-stock company which was granted a... , a sphere of opportunity for Englishmen of talent whose social standing was an impediment to a career at home, but who in India could lord it like a "nabobNawab Nawab was originally the subedar or viceroy of a subah or region of the Mughal empire, but became a high title for M... ". After his father died, Thackeray was sent home to England to be educated at the ancient and respectable though not quite stylish public school CharterhouseCharterhouse School name = Charterhouse\| image = \| motto = Deo Dante Dedi... , and at Trinity College, CambridgeTrinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.... . Reverse snobbery Reverse snobbery is the phenomenon of looking unfavourably on perceived social elites – effectively the opposite of snobbery. For instance, poorer members of society may consider themselves to be friendlier, happier, or more honest or moral than richer members of the society, and middle-income members of society may stress their poorer origins. This is common in British politics, in which MPs often say things such as "I grew up on a council estate" to try to prove their common roots. The term "Bourgeois" (taken from BourgeoisieBourgeoisie Bourgeoisie in modern use refers to the ruling class in a capitalist society. ... ) is frequently used in North America to describe individuals who borrow veneers of upper classes in order to affect a sophisticated, cultured image. An often used modified version of the term is pronounced as boo-jee. A related phenomena is where people who have worked hard to change their lives are accused of having "betrayed their roots". Beaujy (pronounced boo-jee) is a modification of term that originated in the 1980s See also Anti-elitismAnti-elitism Anti-elitism is a term used to describe attitudes of disregard, resentment, or in extreme cases hate for those in power.... Chronological snobberyChronological snobbery Chronological snobbery is the logical fallacy that the thinking, art, or science of an earlier time is inherently inferior w... ClassismClassism *Classism* is any form of prejudice or oppression against people who are in, or who are perceived as being like those who ... NarcissismNarcissism Narcissism describes the character trait of self love.... PedantPedant A pedant is a person who is a formalist or precisionist in teaching or scholarship.... Spoiled bratSpoiled brat A brat, or pleonastically spoiled brat is a child whose parents or other educators systematically fail to teach social... WannabeWannabe Overview A wannabe is a person who likes to imitate, or even wishes to be, another.... PridePride Pride refers to a strong sense of self-respect, a refusal to be humiliated as well as joy in the accomplishments of oneself ... Emotional insecurity Further reading Norbert EliasNorbert Elias Norbert Elias was a German sociologist of Jewish descent, who later became a British citizen.... , The Court Society 1983. External links : "Is there a place where one is outside all snobbish concerns—neither wanting to get in anywhere, nor needing to keep anyone else out?" Etymologies