What is "common time"

Common \Com"mon\, a. [Compar. Commoner; superl. Commonest.] [OE. commun, comon, OF. comun, F. commun, fr. L. communis; com- + munis ready to be of service; cf. Skr. mi to make fast, set up, build, Goth. gamains common, G. gemein, and E. mean low, common. Cf. Immunity, Commune, n. & v.]

1. Belonging or relating equally, or similarly, to more than one; as, you and I have a common interest in the property.

   Though life and sense be common to men and brutes.
   --Sir M. Hale.

2. Belonging to or shared by, affecting or serving, all the members of a class, considered together; general; public; as, properties common to all plants; the common schools; the Book of Common Prayer.

   Such actions as the common good requireth.
   --Hooker.

   The common enemy of man.
   --Shak.

3. Often met with; usual; frequent; customary.

   Grief more than common grief.
   --Shak.

4. Not distinguished or exceptional; inconspicuous; ordinary; plebeian; -- often in a depreciatory sense.

   The honest, heart-felt enjoyment of common life.
   --W. Irving.

   This fact was infamous And ill beseeming any common man, Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.
   --Shak.

   Above the vulgar flight of common souls.
   --A. Murphy.

5. Profane; polluted. [Obs.]

   What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
   --Acts x. 15.

6. Given to habits of lewdness; prostitute. A dame who herself was common. --L'Estrange. Common bar (Law) Same as Blank bar, under Blank. Common barrator (Law), one who makes a business of instigating litigation. Common Bench, a name sometimes given to the English Court of Common Pleas. Common brawler (Law), one addicted to public brawling and quarreling. See Brawler. Common carrier (Law), one who undertakes the office of carrying (goods or persons) for hire. Such a carrier is bound to carry in all cases when he has accommodation, and when his fixed price is tendered, and he is liable for all losses and injuries to the goods, except those which happen in consequence of the act of God, or of the enemies of the country, or of the owner of the property himself. Common chord (Mus.), a chord consisting of the fundamental tone, with its third and fifth. Common council, the representative (legislative) body, or the lower branch of the representative body, of a city or other municipal corporation. Common crier, the crier of a town or city. Common divisor (Math.), a number or quantity that divides two or more numbers or quantities without a remainder; a common measure. Common gender (Gram.), the gender comprising words that may be of either the masculine or the feminine gender. Common law, a system of jurisprudence developing under the guidance of the courts so as to apply a consistent and reasonable rule to each litigated case. It may be superseded by statute, but unless superseded it controls. --Wharton. Note: It is by others defined as the unwritten law (especially of England), the law that receives its binding force from immemorial usage and universal reception, as ascertained and expressed in the judgments of the courts. This term is often used in contradistinction from statute law. Many use it to designate a law common to the whole country. It is also used to designate the whole body of English (or other) law, as distinguished from its subdivisions, local, civil, admiralty, equity, etc. See Law. Common lawyer, one versed in common law. Common lewdness (Law), the habitual performance of lewd acts in public. Common multiple (Arith.) See under Multiple. Common noun (Gram.), the name of any one of a class of objects, as distinguished from a proper noun (the name of a particular person or thing). Common nuisance (Law), that which is deleterious to the health or comfort or sense of decency of the community at large. Common pleas, one of the three superior courts of common law at Westminster, presided over by a chief justice and four puisne judges. Its jurisdiction is confined to civil matters. Courts bearing this title exist in several of the United States, having, however, in some cases, both civil and criminal jurisdiction extending over the whole State. In other States the jurisdiction of the common pleas is limited to a county, and it is sometimes called a county court. Its powers are generally defined by statute. Common prayer, the liturgy of the Church of England, or of the Protestant Episcopal church of the United States, which all its clergy are enjoined to use. It is contained in the Book of Common Prayer. Common school, a school maintained at the public expense, and open to all. Common scold (Law), a woman addicted to scolding indiscriminately, in public. Common seal, a seal adopted and used by a corporation. Common sense.

   1. A supposed sense which was held to be the common bond of all the others. [Obs.]
      --Trench.

   2. Sound judgment. See under Sense.

      Common time (Mus.), that variety of time in which the measure consists of two or of four equal portions.

      In common, equally with another, or with others; owned, shared, or used, in community with others; affecting or affected equally.

      Out of the common, uncommon; extraordinary.

      Tenant in common, one holding real or personal property in common with others, having distinct but undivided interests. See Joint tenant, under Joint.

      To make common cause with, to join or ally one's self with.

      Syn: General; public; popular; national; universal; frequent; ordinary; customary; usual; familiar; habitual; vulgar; mean; trite; stale; threadbare; commonplace. See Mutual, Ordinary, General.

Time \Time\, n.; pl. Times. [OE. time, AS. t[=i]ma, akin to t[=i]d time, and to Icel. t[=i]mi, Dan. time an hour, Sw. timme. [root]58. See Tide, n.]

1. Duration, considered independently of any system of measurement or any employment of terms which designate limited portions thereof.

   The time wasteth [i. e. passes away] night and day.
   --Chaucer.

   I know of no ideas . . . that have a better claim to be accounted simple and original than those of space and time.
   --Reid.

2. A particular period or part of duration, whether past, present, or future; a point or portion of duration; as, the time was, or has been; the time is, or will be.

   God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.
   --Heb. i. 1.

3. The period at which any definite event occurred, or person lived; age; period; era; as, the Spanish Armada was destroyed in the time of Queen Elizabeth; -- often in the plural; as, ancient times; modern times.

4. The duration of one's life; the hours and days which a person has at his disposal.

   Believe me, your time is not your own; it belongs to God, to religion, to mankind.
   --Buckminster.

5. A proper time; a season; an opportunity.

   There is . . . a time to every purpose.
   --Eccl. iii. 1.

   The time of figs was not yet.
   --Mark xi. 13.

6. Hour of travail, delivery, or parturition.

   She was within one month of her time.
   --Clarendon.

7. Performance or occurrence of an action or event, considered with reference to repetition; addition of a number to itself; repetition; as, to double cloth four times; four times four, or sixteen.

   Summers three times eight save one.
   --Milton.

8. The present life; existence in this world as contrasted with immortal life; definite, as contrasted with infinite, duration.

   Till time and sin together cease.
   --Keble.

9. (Gram.) Tense.

10. (Mus.) The measured duration of sounds; measure; tempo; rate of movement; rhythmical division; as, common or triple time; the musician keeps good time. Some few lines set unto a solemn time. --Beau. & Fl. Note: Time is often used in the formation of compounds, mostly self-explaining; as, time-battered, time-beguiling, time-consecrated, time-consuming, time-enduring, time-killing, time-sanctioned, time-scorner, time-wasting, time-worn, etc. Absolute time, time irrespective of local standards or epochs; as, all spectators see a lunar eclipse at the same instant of absolute time. Apparent time, the time of day reckoned by the sun, or so that 12 o'clock at the place is the instant of the transit of the sun's center over the meridian. Astronomical time, mean solar time reckoned by counting the hours continuously up to twenty-four from one noon to the next. At times, at distinct intervals of duration; now and then; as, at times he reads, at other times he rides. Civil time, time as reckoned for the purposes of common life in distinct periods, as years, months, days, hours, etc., the latter, among most modern nations, being divided into two series of twelve each, and reckoned, the first series from midnight to noon, the second, from noon to midnight. Common time (Mil.), the ordinary time of marching, in which ninety steps, each twenty-eight inches in length, are taken in one minute. Equation of time. See under Equation, n. In time.

    1. In good season; sufficiently early; as, he arrived in time to see the exhibition.

    2. After a considerable space of duration; eventually; finally; as, you will in time recover your health and strength. Mean time. See under 4th Mean. Quick time (Mil.), time of marching, in which one hundred and twenty steps, each thirty inches in length, are taken in one minute. Sidereal time. See under Sidereal. Standard time, the civil time that has been established by law or by general usage over a region or country. In England the standard time is Greenwich mean solar time. In the United States and Canada four kinds of standard time have been adopted by the railroads and accepted by the people, viz., Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time, corresponding severally to the mean local times of the 75th, 90th, 105th, and 120th meridians west from Greenwich, and being therefore five, six, seven, and eight hours slower than Greenwich time. Time ball, a ball arranged to drop from the summit of a pole, to indicate true midday time, as at Greenwich Observatory, England. --Nichol. Time bargain (Com.), a contract made for the sale or purchase of merchandise, or of stock in the public funds, at a certain time in the future. Time bill. Same as Time-table. [Eng.] Time book, a book in which is kept a record of the time persons have worked. Time detector, a timepiece provided with a device for registering and indicating the exact time when a watchman visits certain stations in his beat. Time enough, in season; early enough. ``Stanly at Bosworth field, . . . came time enough to save his life.'' --Bacon. Time fuse, a fuse, as for an explosive projectile, which can be so arranged as to ignite the charge at a certain definite interval after being itself ignited. Time immemorial, or Time out of mind. (Eng. Law) See under Immemorial. Time lock, a lock having clockwork attached, which, when wound up, prevents the bolt from being withdrawn when locked, until a certain interval of time has elapsed. Time of day, salutation appropriate to the times of the day, as ``good morning,'' ``good evening,'' and the like; greeting. To kill time. See under Kill, v. t. To make time.

       1. To gain time.

       2. To occupy or use (a certain) time in doing something; as, the trotting horse made fast time. To move against time, To run against time, or To go against time, to move, run, or go a given distance without a competitor, in the quickest possible time; or, to accomplish the greatest distance which can be passed over in a given time; as, the horse is to run against time. True time.

          1. Mean time as kept by a clock going uniformly.

          2. (Astron.) Apparent time as reckoned from the transit of the sun's center over the meridian.

n. 1 (context music English) A meter of four quarter notes per measure. 2 (context military English) The ordinary pace of marching, in which ninety steps, each twenty-eight inches in length, are taken in one minute.

n. a time signature indicating four beats to the bar [syn: four-four time, quadruple time, common measure]

"Common Time" is a science fiction short story written by James Blish. It first appeared in the August 1953 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and has been reprinted several times: in the 1959 short-story collection Galactic Cluster; in The Testament of Andros (1965); in The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus (1973); and in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories.

The story is considered to be an archetype of symbolism in science fiction.