plebeian

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ple·be·ian

(plĭ-bē′ən)

adj.

1. Of or relating to the common people of ancient Rome: a plebeian magistrate.

2. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of commoners.

3. Unrefined or coarse in nature or manner; common or vulgar: plebeian tastes.

1. One of the common people of ancient Rome.

2. A member of the lower classes.

3. A vulgar or coarse person.

[From Latin plēbius, from plēbs, plēb-, the common people; see pelə- in Indo-European roots.]

ple·be′ian·ism n.

ple·be′ian·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

plebeian

(pləˈbiːən)

adj

1. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) of, relating to, or characteristic of the common people, esp those of Rome

2. lacking refinement; vulgar: plebeian tastes.

3. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) one of the common people, esp one of the Roman plebs

4. a person who is coarse or lacking in discernment

[C16: from Latin plēbēius belonging to the people, from plēbs the common people of ancient Rome]

pleˈbeianˌism n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ple•be•ian

(plɪˈbi ən)

adj.

1. of or pertaining to the common people.

2. of or pertaining to the ancient Roman plebs.

3. common, commonplace, or vulgar.

4. a member of the common people.

5. a member of the ancient Roman plebs.

[1525–35; < Latin plēbēi(us) of the plebs (adj. derivative of plēbē(s) plebs) + -an¹]

ple•be′ian•ism, n.

ple•be′ian•ly, adv.

ple•be′ian•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	plebeian - one of the common people pleb common people, folk, folks - people in general (often used in the plural); "they're just country folk"; "folks around here drink moonshine"; "the common people determine the group character and preserve its customs from one generation to the next" common man, common person, commoner - a person who holds no title anti-intellectual, lowbrow, philistine - a person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits
Adj.	1.	plebeian - of or associated with the great masses of people; "the common people in those days suffered greatly"; "behavior that branded him as common"; "his square plebeian nose"; "a vulgar and objectionable person"; "the unwashed masses" unwashed, vulgar, common lowborn - of humble birth or origins; "a topsy-turvy society of lowborn rich and blue-blooded poor"

plebeian

adjective

1. common, working-class, lower-class, proletarian, ignoble, lowborn a man who rose to greatness but never forgot his plebeian past
common upper-class, aristocratic, high-class, patrician, highborn

2. uncultivated, mean, low, base, coarse, vulgar, unrefined, non-U (Brit. informal) He had a cockney accent and an alarmingly plebeian manner.
uncultivated polished, refined, cultivated, well-bred

noun

1. commoner, peasant, proletarian, common man, man in the street, pleb, prole (derogatory slang, chiefly Brit.) the history of class struggles, plebeians against patricians

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

plebeian

adjective

Lacking high station or birth:

baseborn, common, déclassé, declassed, humble, ignoble, lowly, mean, unwashed, vulgar.

Archaic: base.

noun

The common people.Used in plural:

common (used in plural), commonality, commonalty, commoner (used in plural), crowd, hoi polloi, mass (used in plural), mob, pleb (used in plural), populace, public, ruck, third estate.

Translations

plebeiji

plebejus

plebeian

[plɪˈbiːən]

A. ADJ → plebeyo (pej) → ordinario

B. N → plebeyo/a m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

plebeian

adj → plebejisch

n → Plebejer(in) m(f)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

plebeian

[plɪˈbiːən] adj & n → plebeo/a

References in classic literature ?

Names everywhere!--some plebeian, some noble, some even princely.

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But when, as in the case of Nicholas the Czar, the ringed crown of geographical empire encircles an imperial brain; then, the plebeian herds crouch abased before the tremendous centralization.

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Thither, too, thronged the plebeian classes as freely as their betters, and in larger number.

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But as we ascend in the social scale, the process of discriminating and being discriminated by hearing increases in difficulty, partly because voices are assimilated, partly because the faculty of voice-discrimination is a plebeian virtue not much developed among the Aristocracy.

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It was the richest and it was the best, and Blackburg would have shed the last drop of its plebeian blood in defense of the Brownon fair fame.

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You can have had no sympathy with Brott - a hopeless plebeian, a very paragon of Anglo-Saxon stupidity?"

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Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.

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Now (this is entirely between ourselves), is she very plebeian?'

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We never saw Mont Blanc at his best until we were many miles away; then he lifted his majestic proportions high into the heavens, all white and cold and solemn, and made the rest of the world seem little and plebeian, and cheap and trivial.

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The people had made no demonstration for the princes, but they had risen for Broussel; they were taking the part of a plebeian and in defending Broussel they instinctively felt they were defending themselves.

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As we were so closely connected, and on the whole were affectionate as became brothers and sisters, it was the common wish that we might not be separated, but go together into the same wardrobe, let it be foreign or domestic, that of prince or plebeian. There were a few among us who spoke of the Duchesse de Berri as our future mistress; but the notion prevailed that we should so soon pass into the hands of a femme de chambre, as to render the selection little desirable.

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It is you, William, who are the aristocrat of your family, and you are not as fine a fellow as your plebeian brother by long chalk."