How common/formal is あたくし?


A while ago, I discovered that あたし has a more-formal variant: あたくし

This is obviously very similar to the relationship between わたし and わたくし.
However, there are a couple of details that I'm not too sure about:

### 1. How common is it?

あたくし doesn't seem to be used as much as other personal pronouns; I could only
find [two](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/17901/9212)
[examples](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/14292/9212) of it being used
on JLU SE, neither of them related to [this
question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/74/9212). It's also mentioned
on [this page](http://chromlea.com/japanese/vocabulary/i-my-japanese.php) and
on [Japanese Wiktionary](http://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%A7%81), though it's
currently absent from the [English
version](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%E3%81%82%E3%81%9F%E3%81%8F%E3%81%97).

### 2. How formal is it?

My understanding is that あたし is less formal than わたし, which in turn is less
formal than わたくし. Given that あたくし is more formal than あたし, and (I assume) less
formal than わたくし, how does it compare with わたし?

**Note:** It seems that わたし, わたくし, あたし, and あたくし are _all_ represented by 私 in
kanji form, so this question uses hiragana to avoid confusion.




Wikipedia
[says](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%BA%E7%A7%B0%E4%BB%A3%E5%90%8D%E8%A9%9E#.E3.81.82.E3.81.9F.E3.81.8F.E3.81.97):

>
> (あたくしは)あたしのきどった言い方である。一般的には昭和時代の漫画やアニメなどで使用された例があるが、平常的には聞くことはまずない言い方である。特に落語家が使用する。

In my opinion あたくし (not わたくし) is typically used by Kantō, classy, pompous,
elder, female celebrities, mainly in fiction. Or by someone who impersonates
such a person.

I confirmed that [黒柳徹子](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetsuko_Kuroyanagi) uses
あたくし in her TV show 徹子の部屋
([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmDqQHgIjZQ)). Someone says that she
is the only person who regularly uses あたくし on TV (I don't know if it's true).

Other than this, I might have heard this actually used once or twice in real
life (in a party or something like that), but my memory is vague.

Regarding the formality, it cannot be used in business/formal _writings_ ,
where we have to almost always stick to 私 anyway. But I also feel that 黒柳徹子
may well give a formal speech using あたくし. I guess most people won't regard
あたくし as impolite, because it sounds similarly enough to わたくし. It will sound
just funny, if used by a wrong person, for example, me.




Wikipedia
[says](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%BA%E7%A7%B0%E4%BB%A3%E5%90%8D%E8%A9%9E#.E3.81.82.E3.81.9F.E3.81.8F.E3.81.97):

>
> (あたくしは)あたしのきどった言い方である。一般的には昭和時代の漫画やアニメなどで使用された例があるが、平常的には聞くことはまずない言い方である。特に落語家が使用する。

In my opinion あたくし (not わたくし) is typically used by Kantō, classy, pompous,
elder, female celebrities, mainly in fiction. Or by someone who impersonates
such a person.

I confirmed that [黒柳徹子](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetsuko_Kuroyanagi) uses
あたくし in her TV show 徹子の部屋
([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmDqQHgIjZQ)). Someone says that she
is the only person who regularly uses あたくし on TV (I don't know if it's true).

Other than this, I might have heard this actually used once or twice in real
life (in a party or something like that), but my memory is vague.

Regarding the formality, it cannot be used in business/formal _writings_ ,
where we have to almost always stick to 私 anyway. But I also feel that 黒柳徹子
may well give a formal speech using あたくし. I guess most people won't regard
あたくし as impolite, because it sounds similarly enough to わたくし. It will sound
just funny, if used by a wrong person, for example, me.

