commoner
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɒm.ə.nə(ɹ)/
ipa: /ˈkɑ.mə.nɚ/
Forms: form: commoners
Etymology: From Middle English comoner, comyner, cumuner, equivalent to common + -er.
Senses: glosses: A member of the common people who holds no title or rank.
examples: text: All below them [the peers], even their children, were commoners, and in the eye of the law equal to each other.
ref: 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Someone who is not of noble rank.
examples: text: There are to this day fellow-commoners at Queens, and surely such a distinguished commoner as Fuller would have been allowed to remain on that foundation, in which he had spent seven years, in this new capacity. The expense would have been about the same, and the only way in which I can account for his migration is either pique at being passed over, or the friendship of so famed a theologian as Dr. Ward.
ref: 1886, Rev. Morris Joseph Fuller, “College Days (Sydney-Sussex). 1629-1631”, in The Life, Times and Writings of Thomas Fuller, D.D., 2nd edition, volume 1, London: S. Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey, pages 68–69:
synonyms: pensioner
qualifier: Oxford University
glosses: A student who is not dependent on any foundation for support, but pays all university charges.
examples: text: Much good land might be gained from forests […] and from other commonable places, so as always there be a due care taken that the poor commoners have no injury.
ref: 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
glosses: Someone who has a right over another's land. They hold common rights because of residence or land ownership in a particular manor, especially rights on common land. eg: centuries-old grazing rights
examples: text: From the Counsell he was carried home to the Prison, and there for many days kept with bread and water, so that had the proudest Anchorite, pretending to the highest abstinence, been Commoner with him, it would have tried his swiftest Devotion to keepe pace with him.
ref: 1651, Thomas Fuller, Abel Redevivus; republished as chapter 1, in The Life, Times and Writings of Thomas Fuller, D.D., volume 2, London: S. Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey, 1886, page 20:
glosses: One sharing with another in anything.
examples: text: O behold this ring / Whose high respect and rich validity / Did lack a parallel; yet for all that / He gave it to a commoner o'th' camp, / If I be one.
ref: c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, act 5, scene 3, lines 191–195:
glosses: A prostitute.
Synonyms: sense: prostitute
word: prostitute
word: commoner
word: meanling
word: peasant
word: peon
word: pleb
word: plebeian
word: prole
word: proletary
word: roturier
word: vulgar
Hyponyms: word: man in the street
word: neif
word: serf
word: villein
word: yeoman
Derived terms: commonership
fellow-commoner
gentleman-commoner
Related terms: word: pauper
word: rural dweller
word: mundane