ˈgentleman-ˈcommoner
[commoner 6.]
1. One of a privileged class of undergraduates formerly recognized in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
Gentlemen commoners were distinguished from ordinary commoners by special academic dress, by dining at a separate table, by various immunities with respect to lectures, etc., and by the payment of higher fees. The term is now practically obsolete, but certain graduates of Christ Church, and three members of St. Mary Hall, are entered in the Oxford University Calendar (1898) under this title.
| 1687 Wood Life 7 Feb. (O.H.S.) II. 210 Mr. Edw. Hales, a gent. commoner, spake at a desk an eloquent English speech. 1709 Steele & Swift Tatler No. 71 ¶8, I believe a Gentleman-Commoner would as soon have the heels of his Shoes red as his Stockings. 1733 Humphreys Life Prior in P.'s Poems III. 3 To accomplish such a generous Intention this Noble Lord sent him, as a Gentleman-Commoner to St. John's College in Cambridge. 1791 Boswell Johnson 31 Oct. an. 1728, They were both entered, Corbett as a gentleman commoner and Johnson as a commoner. 1846 McCulloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) II. 347 This college [Brasenose] usually holds in residence a small number of gentlemen commoners, and about 100 commoners. 1884 M. Pattison Mem. (1885) 68 A goodly array of silk gowns—gentlemen-commoners, as they are invidiously called. |
2. slang. An empty bottle.
| 1785 in Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue. |