different between commonalty vs vulgar

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

Alternative forms

• (early modern English): vulgare

Etymology

Borrowed into Middle English from Latin vulg?ris, from volgus, vulgus (“mob; common folk”), from Proto-Indo-European *wl?k- (compare Welsh gwala (“plenty, sufficiency”), Ancient Greek ???? (halía, “assembly”) ????? (eilé?, “to compress”), Old Church Slavonic ?????? (velik?, “great”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?v?l.??/
• (US) enPR: v?l?g?r, IPA^(key): /?v?l.??/

Adjective

vulgar (comparative more vulgar or vulgarer, superlative most vulgar or vulgarest)

1. Debased, uncouth, distasteful, obscene.
   • The construction worker made a vulgar suggestion to the girls walking down the street.
2. (classical sense) Having to do with ordinary, common people.
   • 1834-1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.

     The mechanical process of multiplying books had brought the New Testament in the vulgar tongue within the reach of every class.

   • 1860, G. Syffarth, "A Remarkable Seal in Dr. Abbott's Museum at New York", Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, age 265

     Further, the same sacred name in other monuments precedes the vulgar name of King Takellothis, the sixth of the XXII. Dyn., as we have seen.

3. (especially taxonomy) Common, usual; of the typical kind.

   the vulgar bush brown, Bicyclus vulgaris

   • 1869, Richard Francis Burton, The Highlands of the Brazil, page 85:

     A vulture (V. aura), probably the Acabiry first described by Azara, is here called […] the hunter. It resembles in form the vulgar bird, but it flies high. The head is red, and the wings are black with silver lining, like the noble Bateleur of Africa.

Synonyms

• (obscene): inappropriate, obscene, debased, uncouth, offensive, ignoble, mean, profane
• (ordinary): common, ordinary, popular

Derived terms

• (obscene): vulgarity, vulgarian
• (ordinary): vulgar fraction, vulgate, Vulgate
• vulgar fraction
• Vulgar Latin
• Vulgar Era

Translations

Noun

vulgar (plural vulgars)

1. (classicism) A common, ordinary person.
   • 2016, Evan Gottlieb, Juliet Shields, Representing Place in British Literature and Culture, 1660-1830

     Popular antiquarian writings […] frequently focused on the regional vulgars' superstitious beliefs regarding the dead and their ongoing presence—such as popular funeral rites or the vulgars' fear of church yards.

2. (collective) The common people.
3. The vernacular tongue or common language of a country.

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin vulg?ris.

Adjective

vulgar (masculine and feminine plural vulgars)

1. vulgar

Derived terms

• vulgarment

Related terms

• vulgaritat

Further reading

• “vulgar” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Galician

Etymology

From Latin vulg?ris.

Adjective

vulgar m or f (plural vulgares)

1. common to the people, vulgar
2. ordinary, undistinguished
3. popular, commonly understood, as opposed to scientific or technical
4. simple, unintelligent

Synonyms

• (ordinary): prosaico
• (popular): común, popular

Antonyms

• (popular): científico, técnico

Related terms

• vulgaridade
• vulgarismo
• vulgo

Further reading

• “vulgar” in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega, Royal Galician Academy.

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin vulg?ris.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /vu?.??a?/
• Hyphenation: vul?gar

Adjective

vulgar (plural vulgares, comparable)

1. common to the people, vulgar
2. ordinary, undistinguished

   Synonym: prosaico

3. popular, commonly understood, as opposed to scientific or technical

   Synonyms: comum, popular

4. simple, unintelligent

Antonyms

• (popular): científico, técnico

Related terms

• vulgaridade
• vulgarismo
• vulgo

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French vulgaire, Latin vulgaris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vul??ar/

Adjective

vulgar m or n (feminine singular vulgar?, masculine plural vulgari, feminine and neuter plural vulgare)

1. vulgar

Declension

Synonyms

• grosolan
• ordinar
• comun

Related terms

• vulg

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin vulg?ris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bul??a?/, [bul???a?]

Adjective

vulgar (plural vulgares)

1. vulgar

Derived terms

Related terms

• vulgo
• vulgaridad

Further reading

• “vulgar” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.