Class
Economic position, cultural identity, and claiming either as merit or fault.
How We Say It
klas
Where It Comes From
Latin classis — a division of the Roman people by property for military and tax purposes. Six classes ranked by wealth. The English word retained this structural meaning before it was softened into social 'class' — a category Americans particularly resist.
How It's Been Used
Americans use 'class' as cultural signifier (working class values, upper class manners) more readily than as economic category. The reluctance to discuss economic class structurally is itself a cultural phenomenon — widely noted by sociologists since at least the 1940s.