While Royalty has lots of privileges, it is also true that they need to follow a whole bunch of rules and restrictions that are often quite weird. For instance, once Kate Middleton ditched her middle class for the blue bloods she had also to say good-bye to a great variety of words. Yes, you heard that right, British Royal Family is not allowed (or just won’t) use certain words. Kate Fox, an anthropologist, says that using some words marks you as a ‘commoner’ so they are just excluded from the Royal vocabulary. Here are 13 words that are on Kate Middleton’s black list.
Pardon
Most people think it’s quite an elegant word, but in fact it’s vice versa. The Royal family would never use ‘pardon’ as it is derived from French and sounds like a poor commoner’s attempt to talk a more refined language. Instead, Royals say ‘sorry’ and ‘what’ or sometimes both as in ‘what – sorry?’ and ‘sorry – what?’
Toilet
Obviously words with French origins are a no-no. The word ‘toilet’ is also prohibited because of its ‘commonness’. It is also considered middle-class to use words like ‘bathroom’, ‘Ladies’, ‘Gents’, ‘facilities’ and even ‘convenience’. Instead, Royals prefer the words ‘lavatory’ and ‘loo’.
Mom and Dad
While we, mere mortals, call our parents ‘Mom and Dad’, Royals have to be a bit more elaborate. They actually call their parents ‘Mummy and Daddy’, which is incredibly cute if you want our opinion. Prince Charles demonstrated this endearing habit in his speech to the Queen at her Diamond Jubilee celebrations. It’s amazing to hear this from a 64-year-old man!
Perfume
Your Mom would wear perfume, but Mummy wears only ‘scent’!
Dinner/Tea
Commoners often refer to their evening meal as ‘tea’, whereas Royals never call it that. For Royal family it’s ‘dinner’ or ‘supper’. They use the latter more often because ‘dinner’ is a more formal occasion. ‘Tea’ is used to describe the hot drink and nothing more.
Serviette
‘Serviette’ is something you don’t hear every day, but it is still a pretty common word. Yet, you will never hear it from a Royal Family member as it is one of those French-inspired words that are banned from the Royal language. ‘Napkin’ is what they use instead.
Sweet
‘Sweet’ is something you should never ever say at a Royal dinner party. The sweet meal after the main course is referred to as ‘pudding’. So it would be really middle-class of you to ask if anyone would like ‘a sweet’ in the end of the meal. ‘Afters’ is another word that will activate the class radar.
Lounge
Royals would say ‘drawing room’ or ‘sitting room’, rarely would they use the words ‘living room’, and ‘lounge’ is something that’s just unacceptable. It’s a very middle-class thing to say!
Function
Have you ever been to a function? That’s where middle-class people go, while lower class people visit a ‘do’. Royal Family just calls it a ‘party’.
Portions
While ‘portions’ seems a pretty acceptable thing to say when talking about food, this is not so for the Royal Family. While ordinary people eat in portions, Royals have ‘helpings’.
Patio
There’s nothing wrong with the word ‘patio’ in most cases, but when you are Royal, your house wouldn’t have a patio, it would have a ‘terrace’.
Posh
There’s nothing wrong with the word itself, but Royals would never use it. Instead, they say ‘smart’ to describe something that’s posh for everyone else. The word ‘posh’ can only be used ironically.
Refreshments
These tricky things are never served at Royal parties. You can find refreshments at functions, but at parties they just serve ‘food and drink’.
