So I apparently don't speak English at all, only American. I read this Economist article, and at first didn't even KNOW what the word's "toff" and "pukka" meant. But now that I have a vague idea, I'm still lost on the distinctions, if any, though I realize that these words are very socially dependent and rather vague.
Here's exerpts of all the times they're used in the article:
No two ways about it, David Cameron is posh. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, is posh.
One is against the toffs, epitomised in a recent swipe about Eton, Mr Cameron’s old school.
In recent decades the Conservatives have been as attuned to these nuances as anyone, preferring humble leaders to pukka ones; as far back as 1923 they picked Stanley Baldwin above Lord Curzon (“a most superior person”), partly for that reason.
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15065282&source=hptextfeature
So is David Cameron Posh, toff, and pukka? Can one be two of the three without being the third?
Thanks for any help with this weird language,
Jacob
Here's exerpts of all the times they're used in the article:
No two ways about it, David Cameron is posh. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, is posh.
One is against the toffs, epitomised in a recent swipe about Eton, Mr Cameron’s old school.
In recent decades the Conservatives have been as attuned to these nuances as anyone, preferring humble leaders to pukka ones; as far back as 1923 they picked Stanley Baldwin above Lord Curzon (“a most superior person”), partly for that reason.
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15065282&source=hptextfeature
So is David Cameron Posh, toff, and pukka? Can one be two of the three without being the third?
Thanks for any help with this weird language,
Jacob
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