middling sort

English

Noun

middling sort (plural middling sorts)

1. The middle class, especially in 18th-century Britain.

   Synonym: middling class

   • 2005, Tony Judt, “The Social Democratic Movement”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN:

     On the contrary: ever since the decline of the music halls, theatre had been the purview of the middling sort—even when the subject matter was ostensibly proletarian.

   • 2015, Keith Linley, ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ in Context: The Politics of Passion, Anthem Press, →ISBN, page 33:

     The upper ranks thought the middling sort were greedy, obsessed with making money, virtuous enough, but lacking taste, elegance and culture.

   • 2019, Tawny Paul, The Poverty of Disaster: Debt and Insecurity in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 11:

     The rise of a middling sort of people is regarded as one of the most significant historical developments in early modern Britain, and an extensive historiography has been devoted to defining this social group.