different between commoner vs roturier

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?m?n?(?)/

Etymology 1

common +? -er (“comparative suffix”)

Adjective

commoner

1. comparative form of common: more common

Usage notes

• The potential for confusion with use of the noun as an adjective, especially in the UK, makes this form less desirable. It is much less commonly used than "more common".

Etymology 2

From Middle English comoner, comyner, cumuner, equivalent to common +? -er.

Noun

commoner (plural commoners)

1. A member of the common people who holds no title or rank.
2. (Britain) Someone who is not of noble rank.
   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England

     All below them [the peers], even their children, were commoners, and in the eye of the law equal to each other.

3. (Britain, Oxbridge slang) An undergraduate who does not hold either a scholarship or an exhibition.
4. (obsolete, Britain, Oxford University) A student who is not dependent on any foundation for support, but pays all university charges; at Cambridge called a pensioner.
5. Someone holding common rights because of residence or land ownership in a particular manor, especially rights on common land.
6. (obsolete) One sharing with another in anything.
7. (obsolete) A prostitute.

Synonyms

• (member of the common people): See Thesaurus:commoner
• (prostitute): See Thesaurus:prostitute

Translations

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French roturier.

Noun

roturier (plural roturiers)

1. A commoner or plebeian; a person of low rank.
   • 1945, Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy:

     He cannot forgive Socrates for his humble origin; he calls him a "roturier," and accuses him of corrupting the noble Athenian youth with a democratic moral bias.

French

Etymology

From roture +? -ier. Compare Medieval Latin ruptur?rius.

Adjective

roturier (feminine singular roturière, masculine plural roturiers, feminine plural roturières)

1. common; not noble

Noun

roturier m (plural roturiers, feminine roturière)

1. commoner

Related terms

• roture

Further reading

• “roturier” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).