Are you familiar with the term "betters"?

Just my two cents, I think it’s some sort of grammatical misunderstanding Quite possible on such a site like Facebook. From my knowledge, the adjective can sometimes be used as a plural noun, things like the dead, the unfortunate… and they alone have the plural meaning. In your case, that person probably wanted to use “better” as a noun, but thought that “because I’m talking about many people, may as well add the “s” like other nouns”. The result was what you saw.

It’s as annoying as when you say “the deads” or “the unfortunates”. That person meant to say “the better”, just with an “s” to emphasize the plural meaning.

It’s an old term, more British than American, but also used in America. It reflects classism.

It’s a very old-fashioned term and very snobbish. I have heard it used but mainly in things like “Masterpiece Theater” programs. “Respect your betters” is one of the ways I’ve heard it used.

That makes sense that it’s from British English. That area of the country often has similitaries to the vernacular in parts of England.

@Mimishu1995 I don’t think so. Here is some of the conversation copied from facebook.

the person wrote: I lived in rural Virginia for ten years. The people there are often very nice but spectacularly trusting of their “betters” and not educated beyond reading and writing.

Then I asked: what do you mean by betters?

A different person interjected what they thought it meant: seems like the issue is what do the poorly educated folk in Virginia mean by their “betters”—-and would those be whites/richies/or—?

The reply to me from the person who originally used the term was: their bosses, their ministers, some of their local politicians. My grandfather was obscenely trusting of the people he worked for.

Yuck. It seems so incredibly unAmerican to use that term. Maybe it didn’t have the connotation of actually being better as we use the word better today? It just sounds awful to me. As people above mentioned it’s more related to class structure I guess.

I’ve also read the dictum, “Respect your elders and betters” – sometimes said in a joking way.

@janbb Interesting. I was thinking in America we would use the word respect to acknowledge someone has more age, wisdom, knowledge, etc.

@JLeslie it sounds awkward to me too. But as others have pointed out that it actually made sense, I guess the person you were communicating isn’t American or just tried to be “classy”. It doesn’t sound like something that appears frequently in daily conversation.

^^They are very American. They are from Virginia, an American southern state. Probably from a poor area. I don’t think they are trying to be classy, I could be wrong.

I grew up in the South and heard the term all my life. My mother, the daughter of a Texas sharecropper displaced to California by the duststorms of the 1930’s, was greeted with bigotry and harassment throughout her school years. She hated that term. As @zenvelo states above, it denotes classicism and reflects bigotry. It is derogatory, like “knowing one’s place,” and “being uppity.” as in “Uppity Okie” and “Uppity Nigger”. All of these terms are meant to keep whole segments of our society down and to remove any hope of upward mobility—things that, in my opinion, are contrary to the basic philosophy of meritocracy behind our Revolution and break from Old World societal structure.

Familiar with it.
Have heard mom say it in a rather derisive tone.
Always took it to mean those who THOUGHT they were better than we were not those who actually were.
She was also fond of saying of the same type of people “They think their shite don’t stink”.

I’m from VA and I’ve heard it before. Usually it’s in context with “old money” southerners. I could be wrong, but I think the term may have even been used in a racist context too, as in the slaves and poor whites vs. the plantation owning class. There’s a caste-like quality to the term, like some people are inherently better than others by birthright—gross.

I’m so glad I didn’t come in contact with this term until my 40’s. If it has been said to me before it went over my head.

This just sounds like ignorant fb wankers, the word they should’ve used in this context is “peers”

I notice quite a bit on one forum I frequent. Usually an admonishment from a couple of right-wing white men toward other posters who are not right-wing/white or male. One gun rights activist there sometimes uses it dozens of times a day and has for close to a decade.

It’s one of the reasons I started looking for another forum.

Yeah, I have heard it. Always from people with the attitude that some people (usually not them) are inferior to others. As far as I can recall, I think it always goes hand in hand with how others should respect and obey the betters, never say anything negative about them, never presume to have ideas that would contradict the betters, etc.

It’s a term that’s been around for generations and the thing most significant about it is that it is bandied about nearly exclusively in America by those it insults. Writers from New England will use it satirically, but it’s one of those archaic terms you bump into like “quality people”.

I have heard it. I would never use it. I don’t think it’s true. We are all equal.

It’s basically someone of a higher social standing than you. Basically “know your place” (in the social class/caste sense). As someone above said – it’s about like calling someone an “uppity nigger”.

@marinelife It may be true in theory, but that in no way diminishes the frantic extent to which we all strive to prove otherwise. Everyone knows what “the Hamptons” or “Rolex” and “Ferrari” are really all about.

Unlike @Espiritus_Corvus, I was born and raised in the North, and never heard the phrase used by anyone around me, but I would think that anyone with even a little exposure to Dickens and Hardy would be familiar with the origin and meaning of the term. Even if they didn’t use the word explicitly, their writing was all about those types of class struggles.

Yes, I’ve heard the term. It is used in a derogatory way to delineate those that think they know better. Much like the ‘elites’ we hear about all the time. It sounds derogatory because it is.

Will “lessers” be opposite term for this..I’m just curious.

Generally referred to as ‘the unwashed masses’.

plebians / plebes; hoi polloi; “the great unwashed”; wogs, etc.

I like the hoi poloi, it has a nice ring to it. Makes me feel kinda special.

@Jaxk, in case you ever decide to use the expression, just be sure to not say “the hoi polloi” as is commonly done. The Greek words literally mean “the many” or “the majority”, so to say “the hoi polloi” would be saying, in effect, “the the many”. (Like SSN number or PIN number, except no one remarks on the redundancy of those expressions any more, either.) Ah, well, just more of my own elitism leaking through, I guess…

Haha.. you’re too elite..) JK..

I get it. I used ‘the hoi polloi’ to mean the term hoi poloi. You have to understand how hoi polloi talk.

great unwashed… isn’t that contrary or more satirical I guess.

Up the chain of command. Seems like the same thing.

^^ It’s not the same thing at all. Of all people, you should know the military earns their ranks. The military is a meritocracy. This term describes inheritance of privilege based solely on bloodlines, family names, an aristocracy that believes their “inferiors”, or any person born beneath the aristocrat’s station can never rise above that station as if ordained by nature of god.

Oh. Well then maybe not. I just saw the part about community leaders.

I only see “betters” used in a negative way these days.

Either people are being called out for arrogantly presuming themselves to be the betters, or for people diminishing themselves by bowing and scraping towards the wealthy and powerful.

Definitely a cringey and imperious word. I have my frustration with Trump voters but I wouldn’t use this language.

It’s an old fashioned word I have never liked. Surely you can respect others without considering them better than you. A cringeworthy word.

Yes, but I don’t believe I’ve ever heard someone use it in real life. In my recollection, it’s most apt to turn up in British TV, film, and fiction set in or before the first half of the twentieth century.

I remember hearing it used in an early episode of “Upstairs, Downstairs,” the 1970s TV series, in a scene between Sarah (the new under-house-parlormaid) and Hudson (the butler, and her boss—the head of the household staff). Hudson delivered some kind of admonition to her, to the effect that she shouldn’t question her betters. And Sarah asked, “Who are my betters? Are you my better? I just want to know.” Pretty cheeky for a young woman in domestic service in turn-of-the-(20th)-century London.

As I recall, Hudson replied something like, “I certainly am, my gurrrl.”

Ah, that was a great series. I remember cockney Sarah. On her first day she rang at the front door instead of the servant’s entrance.

What are we going to do with Uncle Arfur?

Southern people use the term ‘betters’ in place of better judgment. I’ve never heard the term used the way you mention. Are you sure she wasn’t joking?

It’s not that different from referring to one’s “superiors” in a hierarchy. Not that long ago it was common for people to talk about superiors and subordinates in the workplace. Now it’s “direct reports” instead of subordinates, and there are various titles in place of “superiors,” but you don’t have to be a terribly old office worker to remember those other terms.

@Jeruba Good point. I am familiar with the term “superiors.” It is very similar to “betters” when I think about it, except for some reason heirarchy at work is more palatable to me, so it didn’t stand out the same way the term “betters” did. I don’t mind that we have more or less done away with the word superiors though. I much prefer using the actual title of the position the person holds.

@MollyMcGuire Not a joke. I don’t know if you read the interaction I quoted in one of my answers with the person who had written it. We had more conversation than that, she never came close to indicating it’s a joke, rather she explained what it was and talked about family members who follow the “betters” in their community almost blindly. There were quite a few people on the thread, and many were talking about how religious people follow without question, and it’s like a personality trait that not only applies to their religion, but life in general. I don’t agree with how broadly they were generalizing. Some of them were characterizing the “Trump voter” as wanting a president who is basically a dictator.

The way I understand “betters” is that they are mystical people who are somehow better than I am. Something I wholeheartedly disagree with. I think the idea of “betters” can be quite destructive to society. I would say some people are luckier than I am and I am luckier than a lot of people. What we all should strive for is equality and equal opportunity.

The meaning and connotiations connected to the term obviously depends on the culture or subculture you come from. It is no secret on this site that southern culture, unique in many ways from the rest the U.S, is viewed negatively. There are many negative aspects to it, but there is also much good, as in all cultures. Every culture has had to make its own journey under circumstances often not understood by the cultures around them.

I come from a part of Florida that was, at the time of my childhood, steeped in Old Deep South culture. The county just north of ours still holds the record for lynchings in Florida. The last lynching there was in the early 1950’s. We had our last lynching in 1909, a double lynching. The people in my county considered themselves more civilized than the county to the north because of this.

My part of the the county was settled before the Civil War by families who often owned slaves and afterwards by Confederate veterans. The southern part of the county was settled after the war by Union veterans and even later by retired northern industrialists and business owners. This, of course, created much distrust and social agitation, especially during election years.

The society leaders of my part of the county—even when I was entering my teens—considered themselves better and more civilized than the Yankees to the south of them because they still practiced and belived in the ettiquette and social graces of ante-bellum society, whereas those to the south were considered low, money grubbing, crass, aggressive and without any vestige of good manners. They viewed us as backward, dirt farmers and former slavers who long to reverse the changes made since the war. It was a scandal if one or the other’s debutants married into the family of the other’s.

It was always interesting to me that the police officers and school system to our south enforced the Jim Crow laws and segregation just a vigorously as ours did, without any complaint from their town leaders or citizens

The terms “betters” and “uppity” were often used in both societies and always with negative connotations.