начиная с вопроса: "In one section, she (Kate Fox) lists certain words that if used by someone would identify them as a member of a specific class. One of these words is "serviette". She claims that using the word "serviette" would automatically "flag" the user as working class to anyone listening who wasn't working class. This took me completely aback, since I've always used the word "serviette" to refer to the paper variety, and the word "napkin" to refer to the cloth variety. (It would sound very pretentious IMO asking for more "napkins" in Mackey D's if the serviettes had run out. Equally I wouldn't ask for a "serviette" if eating in a restaurant that uses cloth napkins if there wasn't one on the table).
Does anyone else make this paper/cloth distinction and use "serviette" for the former, and "napkin" for the latter or do you *always* use one term and never the other?
For me "serviette" and "napkin" have always been two different terms for two different things, not class-identifying synonyms (in England at least) for the same thing. "
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-05-21 11:03 am (UTC)начиная с вопроса: "In one section, she (Kate Fox) lists certain words that if used by someone would identify them as a member of a specific class. One of these words is "serviette". She claims that using the word "serviette" would automatically "flag" the user as working class to anyone listening who wasn't working class. This took me completely aback, since I've always used the word "serviette" to refer to the paper variety, and the word "napkin" to refer to
the cloth variety. (It would sound very pretentious IMO asking for more "napkins" in Mackey D's if the serviettes had run out. Equally I wouldn't ask for a "serviette" if eating in a restaurant that uses cloth napkins if there wasn't one on the table).
Does anyone else make this paper/cloth distinction and use "serviette" for the former, and "napkin" for the latter or do you *always* use one term and never the other?
For me "serviette" and "napkin" have always been two different terms for two different things, not class-identifying synonyms (in England at least) for the same thing. "