On the show “Keeping Up Appearances” the charachters us the phrase. “Our Rose is coming to dinner.” or “Our Hyacynth can be a pill”
I have never heard any other British show use the term “OUR” in front of a name before.
Is that for real?
Well, it’s definition 1e in the OED:
I’ll leave it to someone from that side of the pond to answer how common the usage is.
My grandmother on my father’s side used “our” to refer to relatives. It wasn’t generally constant, but usually as a question when a name was mentioned. (i.e., I saw Mike yesterday. Our Michael?) I live in the States, BTW.
I’ve read it in English mysteries, especially the older ones. It seems to be used mostly by the working class.
BTW, I love “Keeping Up Appearances”!
It’s mostly a northern English phenomenon, used, as previous posters said, when referring to a member of one’s family. It’s especially common in Liverpool. I don’t know if the series “Bread” (set in Liverpool) ever made it across the pond, but it was always used in that. I’m not sure where “Keeping Up Appearances” was meant to be set, but certainly the “common” side of the family sounded quite northern. I assume this was deliberate, as northern = common to a lot of (southern) Brits.
Sure, it’s used. I think I’ve heard it on “Coronation Street”, and I’m fairly sure I’ve heard it used in conversation while that side of the pond.
Incidentally, I can’t stand “Keeping Up Appearances”. I used to enjoy it, but that woman is so nasty I can’t take it any more. If I could jump through the screen and throttle some sense into her I might watch it again, but being unable to affect the Evil One and those losers that put up with her makes my blood boil.
Watch Billy Elliot. Not only is it an excellent, critically loved movie, but it has a gratuitous use of ‘your’ and ‘our’ as adjectival indicators of familial relation.
Peace,
Your moriah
Can’t you just imagine TubaDiva’s family referring to “Our Humble TubaDiva”?
Fierra’s relatives in Birmingham have used this phrasing too when I visited them with her. I’ve also heard it from people we know in Devon and Cornwall.
It made its way to Ireland as well; just ask our cousin Nellie in Limerick.