comum

Forms

comum m or f (plural comuns, comparable, comparative mais comum, superlative o mais comum or comuníssimo)^[1] Old forms are comũ and comũu, with the feminine comũa (plural commuas), and comon and communes in the 15th century.^[2][3][4] Until the spelling reforms it was often written commum: Bluteau and Morais send the reader to the spelling with two m's.^[5][6][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin commūnis (“common, shared, general”).^[2][3][1] Nascentes says it came by a semi-learned route.^[7] The medieval language more often used comunal, recorded from the 13th century, from Latin commūnālis.^[3] Corominas notes the same late appearance of the adjective Spanish común beside comunal and takes it as a sign of learned origin.^[8]

The same Latin word is Galician común, Catalan comú, Occitan comun, French commun and Italian comune.^[9][1]

Old Latin wrote comoinis.^[10][1] The word goes back to Proto-Italic *kommoinis, by surface analysis com- and mūnis, related to mūnus.^[1][10] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *ḱom-moy-ni-s, from *mey- (“to change, exchange”).^[1][10] Its closest cognate is Proto-Germanic *gamainiz (“shared, common”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the adjective to the 14th century, in the sense “belonging to all or to many”.^[2][3] The Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) writes it comũũ.^[4] In Galician documents of Santiago o comun was also the common people of a town, as against the great.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From “shared by all” the word came to mean “usual, ordinary”, and then, with contempt, “vulgar, of little worth”.^[2][12] Cardoso (1569) glosses it with both Latin communis and vulgaris.^[13] The feminine made a noun comua, a latrine, recorded in 1813.^[3] Grammar uses nome comum for a common noun, and língua comum is a language used for communication across a whole region.^[2]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records, as comũ and comum.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – comũũ in the Horto do Esposo.^[4]
• 15th century – feminine comũa and plural commuas.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin communis and vulgaris.^[13]
• 1578 – comũ in a private letter.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau heads the word commum.^[5]
• 1813 – first record of the noun comua “latrine”.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging to two or more, or to all; shared, mutual: um amigo comum.^[2][12][1]
2. Done or held together by several people; joint: uma decisão comum.^[2][15]
3. Found in many places or cases; frequent, usual, normal.^[2][16][1]
4. Having nothing special; ordinary, plain.^[2][17][1]
5. (pejorative) Of little worth; vulgar, coarse.^[2][15]
6. (grammar) Of a noun: naming any member of a class, as opposed to a proper noun.^[2][18]
7. (geometry) Of a line, side or angle: belonging to more than one figure.^[2][15]

Noun

1. The greater part, the majority: o comum dos leitores.^[2][19]
2. What is usual or normal.^[2][19]

Word family

• comumente
• incomum
• lugar-comum
• comua

Related words

• comuna
• comunal
• comungar
• comunhão
• comunicação
• comunicar
• comunidade
• comunismo
• comunista
• descomunal
• Latin commūnis
• Spanish común

Usage notes

Em comum means “jointly, shared by two or more”, and senso comum is common sense.^[2][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. comum
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. comum
4. ^ a b c Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. comũũ
5. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. comum
6. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 433
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. comum
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 163
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. communis
10. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. comuu
12. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. comum
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. comum
14. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. comum
15. ^ a b c Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. comum
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. comum
17. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. comum
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2281
19. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. comum