Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of or relating to the common people of ancient Rome.
- adjective Of, belonging to, or characteristic of commoners.
- adjective Unrefined or coarse in nature or manner; common or vulgar.
- noun One of the common people of ancient Rome.
- noun A member of the lower classes.
- noun A vulgar or coarse person.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of or pertaining to or characteristic of the plebs or common people; vulgar.
- Belonging to the lower ranks.
- noun One of the common people or lower ranks: first applied to the common people of ancient Rome, comprising those free citizens who were not descended from the original or patrician families. See
plebs .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the Roman
plebs , or common people. - adjective Of or pertaining to the common people; vulgar; common
- noun One of the plebs, or common people of ancient Rome, in distinction from
patrician . - noun One of the common people, or lower rank of men.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the Roman
plebs , or common people. - adjective Of or pertaining to the common people; vulgar; common; as plebeian sports;
- noun One of the
plebs , orcommon people of ancientRome , in distinction frompatrician . - noun archaic One of the common people, or lower rank of men.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun one of the common people
- adjective of or associated with the great masses of people
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The term plebeian is used in this study in the sense that it was defined by E.P. Thompson in his discussion of eighteenth-century English society.
Gutenber-e Help Page 2005
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The trait in her to which he took most frequent and violent exception was what he called her plebeian caution; she seemed determined to pay due and conventional respect to appearances.
Gänsemännchen. English Jakob Wassermann 1903
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But the "Catholic = Irish" segment faltered within plebeian culture as many English Protestants were absorbed into the Catholic community.
Gutenber-e Help Page 2005
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The greatest bar to women's participation was the common-law principle of coverture, although it should be noted that the status and authority of married women in plebeian families likely permitted them a good deal of behind-the-scenes involvement in any legal matters confronting their families.
Gutenber-e Help Page 2005
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The salvaging of items from wrecks, then, was one of numerous economic activities in plebeian households, and one in which women played roles as both salvagers and recyclers as they worked to make ends meet for their families. 55
Gutenber-e Help Page 2005
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Such rhetoric made few incursions in plebeian culture because it clashed with the reality of women's lives.
Gutenber-e Help Page 2005
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Among the aristocracy and middle class, primogeniture and tail male were generally favored; but within plebeian or working-class communities, daughters frequently inherited on a relatively equitable basis with sons, sometimes with sole use provisions to prevent the property from falling into the hands of sons-in-law.
Gutenber-e Help Page 2005
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Still, bundling (parent-approved, pre-marital sex) and pre-marital pregnancy were tolerated within plebeian communities, provided couples were moving towards a stable family arrangement.
Gutenber-e Help Page 2005
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He belonged to a family of high rank and unbending pride which would brook no mésalliance, and yet wealth could no longer be considered secure except in plebeian hands.
Indiana 1900
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a plebeian from the last to the first rank of society, supposes some qualifications above the level of the multitude.
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206
milosrdenstvi commented on the word plebeian
I was quite strenuously informed the other day that the accent is on the second syllable. So it is. While looking this up, I realised I had been spelling it without the second e. How plebeian.
December 14, 2010
yarb commented on the word plebeian
You can avoid that problem by using the very satisfactory short form, pleb.
December 14, 2010