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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
commoner
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But Aye was a commoner and could not become pharaoh without marrying into the royal family.
▪ John, the son, became a fellow commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, and died unmarried.
▪ Muscovy's commoners, of course, were not an undifferentiated mass.
▪ The commoners, who had everything to lose from undertakings such as his, were firing an opening shot.
▪ The rights of registered commoners were to continue unchanged.
▪ Then in the eighteenth century there was conflict between Crown programmes of economic development and the interests of the commoners.
▪ This comprises a small number of true wasteland species, commoner there than in other habitats.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Commoner

Commoner \Com"mon*er\, n.

  1. One of the common people; one having no rank of nobility.

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

  2. A member of the House of Commons.

  3. One who has a joint right in common ground.

    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.
    --Bacon.

  4. One sharing with another in anything. [Obs.]
    --Fuller.

  5. A student in the university of Oxford, Eng., who is not dependent on any foundation for support, but pays all university charges; - - at Cambridge called a pensioner.

  6. A prostitute. [Obs.]
    --Shak.

Commoner

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.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
commoner

early 14c. (in commoners), from common (adj.).

Wiktionary
commoner

Etymology 1 a. (en-comparative of: common) Etymology 2

n. 1 A member of the common people who holds no title or rank. 2 (context British English) Someone who is not of noble rank. 3 (context British at Oxbridge universities English) An undergraduate who does not hold either a scholarship or an exhibition. 4 (context obsolete UK Oxford University English) 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 (context obsolete English) One sharing with another in anything. 7 (context obsolete English) A prostitute.

WordNet
commoner

n. a person who holds no title [syn: common man, common person]

Wikipedia
Commoner (disambiguation)

A commoner is a person who is not a member of the nobility or priesthood.

Commoner(s) may also refer to:

  • Commoner (academia), a term used at some universities for a student not receiving a scholarship or exhibition
  • In a UK context, people who are not members of the British nobility
  • Members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
  • One of the estates of the realm
  • People who share rights over common land
  • Members of the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation
  • Commoner (Dungeons & Dragons)
  • Barry Commoner (1917–2012), American biologist and politician
  • "The Great Commoner", a nickname often applied to William Jennings Bryan
    • The Commoner, a weekly magazine founded by Bryan
Commoner

The terms common people, common man, commoners, or the masses denote a broad social division referring to ordinary people who are members of neither royalty nor nobility nor the priesthood. Since the 20th century, the term common people has been used in a more general sense to refer to typical members of society in contrast to highly privileged (in either wealth or influence).

Commoner (academia)

A commoner is a student at certain universities in the British Isles who historically pays for their own tuition and commons.

Usage examples of "commoner".

At any rate, it seems there has been suspicion cast on my little sister concerning the deaths of Lord Alef Drake and a commoner named Jisha Teal, last year at about this time.

Thus amongst the Angoni of British Central Africa the corpses of chiefs are burned with all their household belongings, but the bodies of commoners are buried with all their belongings in caves.

Doubtless when Queen Zorana married Clive Elkwood, the strength of the Shields was diluted and diluted again when King Chalmer insisted on marrying a commoner.

Augustus gave the Noble Order of Knights permission to marry commoners, even freedwomen, but this did not improve things very much.

Noble Order of Knights permission to marry commoners, even freedwomen, but this did not improve things very much.

Kadarin to the Sea of Dalereuth as the finest man with hawks in the Kilghard Hills, and he had taught all his arts to Mikhail, now The MacAran, and to his commoner cousin Davin Hawkmaster.

Show me your hobs ready to fight, your commoners also ready, your knights agreeing to pitch in.

Not like the beggar, humbly imploring for a crust in the name of the Lord, nor like the jeweller displaying his precious stones to dazzle and tempt the eye, he comes to the world,--nay, in accents of Tyrtaeus this commoner of Nizhni Novgorod spurs on his troops of freedom-loving heroes to conquer, as it were, the placid, selfsatisfied literatures of to-day, and bring new life to pale, bloodless frames.

That is the place for sinners such as she is, be they queens or commoners.

The Black Lotus most resembled the Nichiren Shoshu sect, founded some four hundred years ago by a dynamic spiritual leader and still popular with commoners, which chanted the Lotus Sutra to achieve enlightenment.

The crop is afterwards used for loans to the poorer commoners, mostly free grants, or for the orphans and widows, or for the village church, or for the school, or for repaying a communal debt.

For instance, in three districts of the province of Moscow--industrial to a great extent--drainage works have been accomplished within the last ten years on a large scale in no less than 180 to 200 different villages--the commoners working themselves with the spade.

German colony of the south-east the commoners worked, men and women alike, for five weeks in succession, to erect a dam, two miles long, for irrigation purposes.

What could they obtain through individual effort when South Russia was struck with the marmot plague, and all people living on the land, rich and poor, commoners and individualists, had to work with their hands in order to conjure the plague?

The whole population of nobles at court and most of the rich commoners of Krondor were attending the gala.