different between commonalty vs throng

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: k?m'?n?lti, IPA^(key): /?k?m?n?lti/

Noun

commonalty (countable and uncountable, plural commonalties)

1. The common people; the commonality.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:commonalty

   • 1906, Sinclair Lewis, "Unknown Undergraduates" first published in the Yale Literary Magazine, June, 1906, in The Man from Main Street: Selected Essays and Other Writings, 1904-1950, Harry E. Maule and Melville H. Cane (eds.), New York: Pocket Books, 1962, p. 122,

     Besides the men who are unknown but important there is the commonalty, whom you regard as mere entities, whose very names you do not know, or will forget before your triennial.

2. A group of things having similar characteristics. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
3. A class composed of persons lacking clerical or noble rank; commoners.
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, London: J.M. Dent, 1906, Vol. 1, Chapter 35, p. 353, [1]

     […] and all the people wholly for this gentleness, first the estates both high and low, and after the commonalty cried at once: Sir Launcelot hath won the field whosoever say nay.

   • 1605-8, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act I, [2]

     Second Citizen: Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

     First Citizen: Against him first: he's a very dog to the commonalty.

   • 1910, Fiona Macleod, "The Harping of Cravetheen" in The Sin-Eater, The Washer of the Ford and Other Legendary Moralities, New York: Duffield & Co., pp. 91-2, [3]

     The commonalty spoke of his mighty spear-thrust, of his deft sword-swing, the terror of his wrath, of the fury of his battle-lust, of his laughter and light joy, and the singing that was on his lips when his sword had the silence upon it.

4. The state or quality of having things in common.
   • 1988, Nadine Gordimer, The Essential Gesture: Writing, Politics and Places, New York: Knopf, p. 8,

     Or is there some way in which the product of that solitude—writing—may none the less be profoundly social, rejoining the commonalty of society, and through its indirections and specificities being the most authentic contribution the writer can offer?

   • 2000, Stephen O. Murray, Homosexualities, University of Chicago Press, Part 3, Chapter 9, p. 382,

     Some individuals fight the expectation that they ought to be part of any such "we," while others eagerly seek a sense of commonalty.

5. A shared feature.
   • 2007, Curt R. Blakely, Prisons, Penology and Penal Reform: An Introduction to Institutional Specialization, New York: Peter Lang, Chapter 2, p. 29, [4]

     Observant visitors to any prison will quickly recognize commonalties in its inmate population. Not only do shared traits exist among the inmate population of any particular institution (intra-prison commonalties) but commonalties also exist among inmates nationwide (inter-prison commonalties).

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English throng, thrang, from Old English þrang, ?eþrang (“crowd, press, tumult”), from Proto-Germanic *þrangw?, *þrangw? (“throng”), from *þrangwaz (“pressing, narrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *trenk?- (“to beat; pound; hew; press”). Cognate with Dutch drang, German Drang. Compare also German Gedränge (“throng”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: thr?ng, IPA^(key): /????/
• (US) enPR: thrông, thr?ng, IPA^(key): /????/, /????/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

throng (plural throngs)

1. A group of people crowded or gathered closely together.

   Synonyms: crowd, multitude

   • 1939, Ammianus Marcellinus, John Carew Rolfe, Ammianus Marcellinus, Volume 1, Harvard University Press, page 463:

     Here, mingled with the Persians, who were rushing to the higher ground with the same effort as ourselves, we remained motionless until sunrise of the next day, so crowded together that the bodies of the slain, held upright by the throng, could nowhere find room to fall, and that in front of me a soldier with his head cut in two, and split into equal halves by a powerful sword stroke, was so pressed on all sides that he stood erect like a stump.
2. A group of things; a host or swarm.

Translations

Verb

throng (third-person singular simple present throngs, present participle thronging, simple past and past participle thronged)

1. (transitive) To crowd into a place, especially to fill it.
2. (intransitive) To congregate.
   • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act II scene i^[3]:

     […] I have seen the dumb men throng to see him and / The blind to bear him speak: […]

3. (transitive) To crowd or press, as persons; to oppress or annoy with a crowd of living beings.

   • Much people followed him, and thronged him.

Related terms

• thring

Translations

Adjective

throng (comparative more throng, superlative most throng)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) Filled with persons or objects; crowded.
2. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) Busy; hurried.
   • 1903, Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, ch 59:

     Mr Shaw was very civil; he said he was rather throng just now, but if Ernest did not mind the sound of hammering he should be very glad of a talk with him.