middle class, n.
a. The class of society between the ‘upper’ and the ‘lower’ class. Also (now more commonly) pl. in the same sense.
| 1766 Queen Caroline Matilda of Denmark Let. 25 Dec. in Mem. Unfortunate Queen (1776) 21 There is no such thing here as a middle class of people living in affluence and independence. 1792 A. Young Trav. France I. xxii. 549 Knowledge, intelligence, information, learning, and wisdom ought to govern nations; and these are all found to reside most in the middle classes of mankind; weakened by the habits and prejudices of the great, and stifled by the ignorance of the vulgar. 1812 Examiner 31 Aug. 556/1 Such of the Middle Class of Society who have fallen upon evil days. 1831 Brougham Sp. 7 Oct. (1838) II. 617 By the people..I mean the middle classes, the wealth and intelligence of the country, the glory of the British name. 1843 Borrow Bible in Spain iii, Several of these were of the middle class, shopkeepers and professional men. 1891 H. D. Traill in National Rev. Mar. 15 The great body of the upper middle classes. |
b. attrib., as in middle-class education, middle class life, middle class public, middle class society, etc.; middle-class examination, a name sometimes given to the ‘local examinations’ (see local a. 2 d) in their early years; middle-class schools, schools established for the education of the middle classes, intermediate between primary schools and the great public schools.
| 1848 Mill Pol. Econ. i. xi. §4 To get out of one rank of Society into the next above it is the great aim of English middle-class life. 1857 T. D. Acland Oxford A.A. Exam. (1858) 33 The Exeter Middle Class Examination. Ibid. 81 The education given in commercial and middle-class schools. 1858 Ibid. p. xx, The consideration of the Middle Class Examinations happened to come before the members of the Senate at a very inconvenient time. Ibid. 3 To prepare the way for a practical and truly English Middle-class Education. 1868 M. Pattison Academ. Org. 3 For centuries our middle-class public were slowly travelling. 1890 Spectator 18 Oct. 518/1 The tastes of the average middle-class buyer of books. |
c. Used as adj., with the sense: Characteristic of the middle classes; having the characteristics of the middle classes. Esp. as middle-class morality. (With depreciative implication. Cf. bourgeois a. 2.)
| 1893 Saltus Madam Sapphira 106 Don't talk back, it is middle-class to begin with. 1905 Dicey Law & Publ. Opin. vi. 186 Benthamism was fundamentally a middle class creed. 1926 F. M. Ford Man could Stand Up i. iii. 49 What should keep them apart?... Middle Class Morality? 1966 Punch 13 July 78/2 The tyranny of middle-class morality must be conquered, especially in the field of the homosexuality laws. 1968 A. MacLeod Dam vi. 62 A concession to your middle class morality. 1975 Times 15 Jan. 15/5 It was refreshing to see the virtues of middle class morality applauded. |
Hence middle-classdom, -classism, the middle class as a whole; their characteristics, interests, or position; middle-classer, one who belongs to the middle class; middle-classness, middle-class quality; middle-classy a., suggestive of the middle class.
| 1886 Morris in Mackail Life (1899) II. 157, I met some very agreeable middle-classers there, and had much talk. 1887 Sat. Rev. 21 May 745 The slovenly middle-classness of Dublin. 1894 R. Broughton Beginner xii, I recognise the middle-classness. 1909 Working Men's College Jrnl. Apr. 77 Mr. Lupton..did not think the question before the House was one of aristocracy v. middle-classism. 1923 A. Huxley Antic Hay ix. 142 The dreadful middle-classness of her Art and Craftiness. 1926 Glasgow Herald 21 May 8 Highly respectable, middle-classy railway clerks. 1930 Observer 14 Sept. 7 The secret of Denmark's somewhat stuffy middle-classdom. 1963 Times 2 May 18/2 Incipient middle-classdom; outward conformity. 1970 Guardian 2 Mar. 9/1 There is nothing so guaranteed to preserve English middle classness..as being surrounded..by foreign parts. |