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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9729747" data-attributes="member: 18">Even posher, actually. Public schools are an an elite tier of private school, basically the Ivy League of private schools - i.e. old, very expensive, offer the opportunity to make connections if you go there (in theory), typically high academic achievement, etc. And we call what people the US call "public schools", "state school" (albeit thanks to various confused efforts of politicians over the last 80+ years there are various types of state school too, which are often specified). Only some of them are boarding schools (though the most internationally famous ones like Eton and Harrow are).I went to all three types myself - state school up to age 10, a science-focused non-boarding ("day") public school to 16, and then a slightly hippy arts/drama-oriented private school.Yeah RP has shifted and broadened meaning-wise as it was taken up by the English middle/upper-middle class over the 20th century. They sometimes try and give it a new name, like "Standard Southern British English" for example, but RP is the only one that's stuck (SSBE is now basically just a synonym for RP). There are a lot of arguments among linguists here of course - the nuttiest one I've come across is attempt to rename all Southern English outside of London, the West Country and East Anglia to "Estuary", which is like, no, that's a specific thing and distinct.</blockquote>