classless and its meaning

[Kenny同志]

请教诸位，

Winston is a very classless person.

What does it mean? Is it intended to say Winston doesn't belong to any social class?

Thanks in advance.

[zening]

It has the meaning you said.I think it also has another meaning.For example,read this sentence.You may criticize yao's play recently and i did too. But calling yao's stupid and sissy only show how classless you as a person! and in this sentence it means 丑陋.

[889]

You "have class" if you behave yourself properly, especially though not necessarily in higher reaches of society. Graciousness is a characteristic of class in this sense. Vengeance is not.

In sports, a player who constantly fouls others or otherwise plays dirty hasn't got any class, and thus could be said to be "classless," though I'd prefer a term like "without class."

[Kenny同志]

Thank you both. So I think the sentence is something like “温斯顿举止很随便”, and a player who constantly fouls others or otherwise plays dirty is a person who 不守规矩, am I right?

@889

You mentioned “graciousness” which I think associates well with behaving oneself or 举止，风度, but you also mentioned “vengeance”, which literally means 报复; this makes me confused.

[889]

As I said, vengeance is NOT characteristic of class.

We'd have to know context to say exactly why Winston has no class, since the term can be used in a variety of different situations.

[Kenny同志]

Sorry, I didn’t make it clear in my post. The word “not” was duly noted. I was just slightly surprised at “vengeance”. Lol. So I replied to confirm. It’s all clear now. Thanks.

PS: I encountered the sentence in a book on translation skills the other day. Unfortunately, the sentence was singled out and didn’t have any context.

[889]

I meant to say that turning the other cheek is classy. Always feeling you have to get even is not.

[Kenny同志]

Got it. Thanks for your explanation. B)

[semantic nuance]

How about 溫斯頓很沒品?

[gato]

"class" can be translated as 修养, I think.

[889]

My 现代英汉综合大辞典 translates "There's not much class about her" as 她没有什么出众之处.

[skylee]

How about 溫斯頓很沒品?

I agree with you. The first terms that came up in my mind when I read this thread were 有品 and 沒品. But it seems that in the Mainland (some) people take 有品 to mean 有品味 instead of 有品德/修養.