trousered class

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

trousered class (plural trousered classes)

1. The social class of those who are educated and who perform skilled work for a living.
   • 1965, Sri Lanka. Pārlimēntuva. Senate, Parliamentary Debates - Volume 22, Issues 16-27, page 2461:

     From 1947 to 1956 the so-called freedom was simply confined to the trousered class, the capitalist class, the class who could ride in big limousines.

   • 1973, Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, Peoples of the earth - Volume 12, page 120:

     They are part of the 'trousered class', highly educated and westernized.

   • 1991, Kurt A. Gingrich, Education and Empire:

     He joined the "trousered" class, which included "journalists, doctors, teachers, lawyers, clerks, ministers, managers, police, soldiers, students, and artists."

   • 2005, Trevor Griffiths, These are the Times: A Life of Thomas Paine, page 13:

     In one half, merchants, professionals, speculators and country gentry, wigged, stocked, breeched and buckled, hold a million post-mortems on the day's dealings. In the other, the trousered classes - artisans, skillmen, journeymen - argue the toss over ale and pie. The boundary is fluid, but the lines are clearly drawn.