Etymologically
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plebeius

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɫeːˈbeː.jʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [pleˈbɛː.jus][1]

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]

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