común

Forms

común m or f (masculine and feminine plural comunes)^[1] In the 15th century the usual feminine was comuna, in Aragonese texts and in Castilian poets such as Villasandino, Juan de Mena and Pérez de Guzmán, though nearly always in rhyme; the invariable feminine común appears in prose and has been general since the 16th century.^[2]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Latin commūnis (“common, shared”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas dates the noun to Berceo and the adjective only to the 14th century, and takes this late appearance, and the almost exclusive use of comunal as the adjective in the 13th and 14th centuries, as signs of a learned origin.^[2] Wiktionary likewise calls the noun inherited and the adjective probably a borrowing or a semi-learned word.^[1] Nascentes calls the Portuguese word semi-learned.^[5]

The same Latin word is Portuguese comum, Catalan comú, Occitan comun, French commun and Italian comune.^[6][7] Catalan, like Occitan and French, made a feminine in -a from the start.^[8] The Latin neuter plural commūnia (“common things”) survives in Asturian comuña, a contract to rear another person's livestock for half the profit.^[2][9]

The Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus has the older spelling comoinis.^[10][11] It goes back to *kommoinis and Proto-Indo-European *ḱom-moy-ni-s, from *mey- (“to change”), and its Germanic cognate is Proto-Germanic *gamainiz (“shared, common”).^[1] The OLD analyses it as con- and mūnis, from a root meaning “exchange”, and connects mūnus (“duty, gift”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), on a wall held in common: Dela paret de comun.^[12] Corominas's first record is the noun in Berceo's Vida de San Millán (c. 1230), where the saint is blamed for wasting the goods of the community: qe era de los bienes del común gastador.^[2][3][13] The CDH knows that text only from an 18th-century copy.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The adjective is in fact found before the 14th century: the Libro de los doce sabios (c. 1237, in a later copy) speaks of the pro común de la tierra “the common good of the land”, and the Vidal Mayor (c. 1250) of things to be divided en común.^[12] In the prose of Alfonso X the noun means the commons of a town, as in el común de Roma, and the main body of an army.^[14] Autoridades in 1729 gave the three adjectival senses still in use: shared by many, current and accepted by all, and ordinary or of little worth.^[15] The Academy's 1884 edition records an obsolete sense “middling, neither large nor small”.^[16]

The noun also came to mean a privy, retrete, a sense the DAMER still records as rural and rare in Mexico, Central America and Bolivia.^[4][17] In the Dominican Republic común is feminine and names a territorial division smaller than the province.^[17][18] Cámara de los Comunes translates the English House of Commons.^[19]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has paret de comun.^[12]
• c. 1230 – Berceo uses the noun for the goods of the community.^[2][3]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España has el comun de roma for the common people of Rome.^[14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin communis and publicus for comun cosa.^[13]
• 1538 – the first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[20]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the senses “shared”, “current” and “ordinary”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy first records comunismo.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. common, shared: belonging or extending to several, not to one alone: Los vecinos reparten los gastos de la escalera común.^[4][1]
2. Current, accepted by everyone or by most: Es una opinión común entre los médicos.^[4]
3. ordinary, frequent and well known.^[4][1]
4. Low, of an inferior class, contemptible.^[4]
5. (grammar) Of a noun, naming any member of a class: nombre común.^[4][21]

Noun

1. The whole people of a town or village.^[4][1]
2. The community (comunidad), people in general.^[4][1]
3. (dated) A toilet, privy.^[4][17]

Word family

• comunero
• comunismo
• comunista
• mancomunar

Related words

• comulgar
• comunicar
• comunidad
• comunión
• comunitario
• comúnmente
• comunal
• Latin commūnis
• Portuguese comum

Usage notes

En común means “jointly, together with others”, and por lo común “usually”.^[22] In grammar común de dos is a noun that has one form for both genders.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 163
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. común
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. común
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. comum
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. communis
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. communis
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 861
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. comuña
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. communis
11. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. común
13. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 740
14. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. común
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 464
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 268
17. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. común
18. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. común
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. común
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. común
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. común
22. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 465