Word of the Day

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Today's Word: plebeian

This week's theme: The Masses

plebeian

(adjective, noun)
[pli-BEE-ahn]

adjective

1. of or pertaining to the Roman plebs, or common people: "This sports arena is a plebeian sacred temple, so please have some respect."

2. of or pertaining to the common people

3. vulgar; common; 'plebeian tastes'; 'plebeian sports'

noun

4. one of the plebs, or common people of ancient Rome, in distinction from patrician

5. one of the common people, or lower rank of men

6. a vulgar person

additional noun form: plebeianism
adverb form: plebeianly

Origin

Approximately 1550; from Latin, 'plebius,' from 'plebs,' 'pleb-': the common people, Roman plebs.

In Action

"The 34-year-old performer and his entourage were reportedly denied entry into British Airways' first-class lounge, as only three of his 30-strong posse held first-class tickets. The group refused to retire to the more plebeian business-class lounge and instead headed to the terminal's duty-free shop, where they allegedly began running amok, hurling whiskey bottles around the store, looting cigarettes and booze and causing what's generally referred to as 'a scene.'"

Gina Serpe. "Snoop Faces Music in Airport Brawl," E! Online (May 10, 2006).

"'I'm not crazy about fish. Or eggs, if they're in a condition where you can separate the yolk from the white - such as boiled, fried or poached.'

My eyes glazed over. He's definitely been a bachelor too long. 'What about quiche,' I asked.

'Quiche is fine because the yolk and white have been thoroughly mixed.'

Brother No. 2 is vegetarian, which ruled out throwing slabs of meat on the barbecue, and brother No. 3 fancies himself as something of a gourmet (eater, not cook), and has a supercilious air about him when confronted with the plebeian fare favoured by mothers and/or sisters in the suburbs.

...Don't get me wrong. I love my brothers and, for the most part, we get on well. But at the risk of sounding sexist, I wish they'd all get married so I'd have a few sisters-in-law as back-up."

Elizabeth Bate. "Can't beat a bachelor bro' to drive a sister stir crazy," The Sydney Morning Herald (May 16, 2006).

"The modern picture of The Artist began to form: The poor, but free spirit, plebeian but aspiring only to be classless, to cut himself forever free from the bonds of the greedy bourgeoisie, to be whatever the fat burghers feared most, to cross the line wherever they drew it, to look at the world in a way they couldn't see, to be high, live low, stay young forever--in short, to be the bohemian."

Tom Wolfe (b. 1931). U.S. journalist, author. The Painted Word (1975).

"Tolstoy's aristocratic nature is, above all, responsible for the fact that his whole art and thought are rooted in the idea of the physical, the organic and the natural. Dostoevsky's spiritualism, his speculative mind, his dynamic, dialectical mode of thinking, can be traced back just as definitely to his bourgeois descent and plebeian uprootedness. The aristocrat owes his position to his mere existence, his birth, his race, whereas the plebeian owes it to his talent, his personal ability and achievements."

Arnold Hauser (1892-1978). Hungarian-born art historian. The Social History of Art (1952).

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