I had thought the term chattering classes was older. A Dorothy Parker term or something of that era. According to the revised OED entry, however, it dates from 1980.
Most definitions I can dredge up consider the word to be weighted heavily to journalists and other media figures. I don't object to that particularly, but the OED examples from the link above suggest something much more like my Arts & Humanities Tribe/Humanist Class. Maybe this group has had a better name all along.
Fun link, BTW. Don't pass it up.
Maybe it's patterned after "nattering nabobs of negativity"!
ReplyDeleteI remember having attended a class in chattering when I was in high school in 1967.
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