Etymologically
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community

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:51. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /kəˈmjuː.nə.ti/, US /kəˈmjuː.nə.t̬i/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English comunete (Scots comminite),[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French comuneté,[5][3][2] later reshaped after its source Latin commūnitās (“fellowship, community”),[6][7][2] from commūnis (“common, shared by all”).[5][8] It is related to common.[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A body of people: 1375, in John Barbour's The Bruce.[3] Etymonline gives the late 14th century for “people living in the same place” and “the common people”, as opposed to the rulers and clergy.[5]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that Latin commūnitās was only a noun of quality, “fellowship”, and that the concrete sense “a society” arose in Medieval Latin.[5] An Old English word for the idea was gemǣnscipe.[5] The inhabitants of a district have been a community since 1426.[10] “Common ownership or enjoyment” and “a group with common interests” date from about 1400,[5] and “common character, likeness” from the 15th century[2] or 1560.[10]

Timeline

  • 1375 – a body of people (Barbour).[3]
  • c. 1400 – common ownership; a group with common interests.[5]
  • 1426 – the inhabitants of a district.[10]
  • 1560 – likeness, common character.[10]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A group of people living in one place under the same government, or the place itself.
  2. A group of people with common interests: the scientific community.
  3. Likeness or identity: community of interests.
  4. Sharing and fellowship.
  5. Society as a whole; the public.
  6. (ecology) A group of plants and animals living together in one area.

Word family

  • communital
  • communitarian
  • intercommunity
  • subcommunity
  • community chest
  • community college
  • community property
  • community service

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)