Originally used in the context of upper class English society, ton meant the state of being fashionable, a fashionable manner or style, or something in vogue. It could also mean people of fashion, or fashionable society generally. A variant of the archaic French term bon-ton, designating good style or breeding, polite, fashionable or high society, or the fashionable world, ton's first recorded use in English was in 1769 according to the Oxford English Dictionary. In British English, the word is pronounced as in French /tɒ̃/, with American English favouring the Anglicised pronunciation /tɔn/ or /tɑn/.