plebeius

Forms

plēbēius (feminine plēbēia, neuter plēbēium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin plēbs (“the common people”) + -ius,^[2][1] formed on the older stem ⟨plēbē-⟩: de Vaan lists it from Plautus on under plēbēs, the earlier form of the noun.^[3][1] He reconstructs the noun as Proto-Italic *plēþū-, from Proto-Indo-European *pléh₁-dʰ-uh₁ (“fullness”),^[3] and compares Ancient Greek πληθύς (plēthū́s, “crowd”) and Oscan plífriks, an adjective like plēbicus.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Plautus on,^[3][4] who in the Poenulus has a speaker say “though we seem to you plebeian and poor” (quamquam nos videmur tibi plebeii et pauperes).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is of or belonging to the plebs, the plebeian order at Rome, as opposed to the patricians: Cicero speaks of plebeian families and Livy of plebeian consuls and of a plebeian Pudicitia beside the patrician one.^[2][5] Livy also uses it of the ludi plebeii, games given every year by the plebeian aediles, and of struggles involving the plebeians.^[2] More generally it means belonging to the common people, as in Plautus, or suited to them, like the plebeian clothes in Lucretius.^[2] From this it came to mean common, ordinary or vulgar: Cicero speaks scornfully of plebeii philosophi.^[2] As a noun it is a plebeian or one of the common people.^[2] In medieval Latin it could mean lay or belonging to a parish, and as a noun a layman.^[6] English took plebeian from it in the 1560s, at first in a Roman historical sense.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of common, poor people.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of plebeian families and of “plebeian philosophers”.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of plebeian consuls and of the ludi plebeii.^[2][5][4]
• Medieval Latin – It means lay, or belonging to a parish.^[6]
• 1560s – English borrows it as plebeian.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to the plebeian order at Rome, as opposed to the patricians.^[2][5]
2. ludī plēbēiī: the Plebeian Games, given every year by the plebeian aediles.^[2]
3. Of or belonging to the common people; suited to the common people.^[2][5]
4. Common, ordinary, vulgar, low.^[2][5]
5. (Medieval Latin) Lay; of a parish.^[6]

Noun

1. A member of the plebeian order; one of the common people.^[2]
2. (Medieval Latin) A layman.^[6]

Related words

• patricius
• English plebeian

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com