vulgaris

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [wʊɫˈɡaː.rɪs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [vulˈɡaː.ris]^[1]

Forms

vulgāris (neuter vulgāre, superlative vulgārissimus, adverb vulgāre or vulgāriter); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vulgus (“the common people”) + -aris.^[2][1] The origin of vulgus is uncertain.^[1] Wiktionary gives Proto-Italic *wolgos or *welgos.^[1] An old spelling was volgāris, and a variant vulgārius is found in early and late Latin.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from the Rhetorica ad Herennium (86/82 BC).^[4] Cicero speaks of legal points remote from ordinary understanding.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant belonging to ordinary people and their standards, common or everyday, and of persons the common people, the lower orders.^[2] It meant ordinary, of the kind usually met with, as Cicero's “not a common crime”, conventional in vocabulary, as words like “bold, greedy, treacherous”, called common and worn out, and frequently occurring, as Phaedrus' “the name of friend is common, but loyalty is rare”.^[2]

It also meant common to all, as Cicero's generosity that extends to everyone.^[2][5] In Medieval Latin vulgaris was also the mother tongue, the vernacular.^[4] English vulgar was borrowed in the late 14th century, first meaning “common, in general use”.^[6]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it.^[4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of generosity extended to all.^[2][5][4]
• before 1227 – Medieval Latin uses vulgaris for the vernacular.^[4]
• late 14th century – English vulgar is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of ordinary people; everyday.^[2][1]
2. Of the common people, low.^[2]
3. Ordinary, common, usual.^[2][1]
4. (of words) Common, conventional.^[2]
5. Common to all, general.^[2][5]
6. Frequent, common.^[2]
7. (Medieval Latin, as a noun) The vernacular.^[4]

Related words

• vulgāritās
• vulgāriter
• vulgārius
• vulgātē
• vulgātor
• vulgātus
• vulgivagus
• vulgō
• vulgus
• English vulgar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com