▪ I. commoner
comparative of common a.
▪ II. commoner, n.
(ˈkɒmənə(r))
Forms: 4 cominer, comouner, 5 comounner, 4–6 comuner(e, communer, comyner(e, 6 comener(e, comonar, commonour, 5– commoner.
[Partly from common n.1 senses 1–2, 5; partly from common v., branches I, III; partly associated with both.]
† 1. a. A member of the community having civic rights; a burgess, citizen; spec. a member of the general body of a town-council. Obs.
| c 1325 Coer de L. 5338 The comouners servyd hym at wylle. c 1450 Lay Folks Mass-bk. 69 We sall pray especially for þe meer, þe xij., þe schirriues and þe xxiiij. and for all gode communers of þis cite. 1467 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 372 The xxiiij. and xlviij. comyners of the seid cite, chosen for good rewle of the same. 1531 Elyot Gov. i. i, In the citie of London and other cities, they that be none aldermen, or sheriffes be called communers. 1557 Order of Hospitalls A iij b, Th' Aldermen, and the Commoners of this City [London]. 1643 Prynne Sov. Power Parl. iii. 53 The Stoickes would have the City of the whole world to be one, and all men to be commoners, and townesmen. |
b. A member of the Court of Common Council (of London).
Chief Commoner: a courtesy title of the chairman of the City Lands Committee—the leading committee of the Common Council.
| 1889 Daily News 9 Feb. 2/6 Mr. Judd, the Chief Commoner..echoed the wish of the Lord Mayor that the friendliest relations should exist between the Corporation and the County Council. |
2. a. More generally: One of the common people; a member of the commonalty. (Now applied to all below the rank of a peer.)
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 325 Clerkes and knyȝtes and comuneres þat ben riche. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 88 Þei graunten pardon..to lordis, clerkis & comineris. 1419 Heretong Clux in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 25 I. 81 Ther is a grete power of hem, bothe of Lordys, Knyths, and Squiers, bot the grettiste power is of Communers. 1534 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) H vij b, He dyned at a knyghtes bridale, and woulde not eate at the bridale of a communer. 1541 Elyot Image Gov. (1556) 59 b, Beginnyng at the base people or communers. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 483 Proud & sumptuous dames, that are but commoners and artizans wiues. 1701 Swift Contests Nobles Athens, Themistocles was at first a commoner himself. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 63 The supreme tribunal..must consist of both commoners and nobles. |
b. transf. Applied to a horse.
| 1890 Standard 17 Mar. 3/7 If the prize goes to Epsom it will be by the aid of Ilex, for the outsider, Braceborough, is only a commoner, I fear. |
3. A member of the House of Commons. Now rare. Great Commoner: a name given to the elder William Pitt. First Commoner, the Speaker.
| 1648 Prynne Plea for Lords 34 The Petitions of the Commoners (containing all Petitions of the Commons house for redresse of..injuries). a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. (1704) III. xi. 140 The Messengers..one of the House of Peers and two Commoners. 1793 Blackstone Comm. (ed. 12) 190 The freedom of the member's person: which in a peer is for ever sacred and inviolable; and in a commoner (by the privilege of parliament) for forty days after every prorogation, and forty days before the next appointed meeting. 1862 Thackeray Four Georges ii. 102 ‘There's the great commoner.’ ‘There is Mr. Pitt.’ 1884 L'pool Mercury 7 Nov. 5/2 For the sake of the House of Lords a protest will be made by the Tory commoners at every stage. 1885 Peel City Guardian 23 May 6/1 The ‘First Commoner’ who now occupies the chair. 1908 A. E. Steinthal tr. Redlich's Procedure Ho. Comm. 137 As ‘first commoner’ in the realm his place is immediately after the peers. |
† 4. One who shares or takes part in anything; a sharer, participator. [f. common v. I.] Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Pet. v. 1 Witnesse of Cristis passioun..and comuner [1388 comynere] of that glorye that is to be shewid. a 1400 Relig. Pieces fr. Thornton MS. 1 Communers of þat blyse þat euer mare lastis. 1450–1530 Myrr. our Ladye 272 By the we are made comuner to the fruyte of lyfe. 1639 Fuller Holy War iv. xvi. (1647) 196 Lewis..resolved to be a commoner with them in weal and wo. a 1661 ― Worthies i. 136 He fled into Germany, and there was Fellow-Commoner with Mr. Sewell in all his sufferings. |
† 5. One who takes or pays for his commons (sense 3), i.e. who shares in a common meal, or eats at a common table; a boarder. Obs.
| 1598 Florio, Dozzenante, a commoner or boorder with others as schollers are. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 554 The Prodigalls fellow commoners, the Swine. |
6. In some English colleges, as at Oxford and Winchester: One who pays for his commons, i.e. a student or undergraduate not on the foundation (called at Cambridge a pensioner).
The colleges were originally intended only for the fellows and scholars ‘on the foundation’, the admission of other students, as ‘commoners’ or boarders, being a subsequent development, which eventuated in the recognition of many ranks of students, as (at Oxford) noblemen, gentlemen-commoners, fellow-commoners, commoners, battelers, servitors: q.v. These grades are now practically obsolete; and the only existing distinction is into scholars, or students on the foundation, and commoners. The latter word thus tends to be understood as = ‘common or ordinary undergraduate’, i.e. one who has not gained a scholarship, exhibition, or other special distinction.
| 1613 Heywood Marriage Triumph (Percy Soc.) 17 Thys ys some yowng schooleman, a fresh comonar. 1671 Glanvill Disc. M. Stubbe 31 Being not related to any Foundation in Oxford, but living there as a Commoner. 1750 Coventry Pompey Litt. ii. x. (1785) 68/2 The rank of a fellow-commoner, which..is one who sits at the same table, and enjoys the conversation of the fellows. It differs from what is called a gentleman-commoner at Oxford..in the greater privileges and licences indulged to the members of this order, who..are allowed to absent themselves at pleasure from the private lectures. 1791 Boswell Johnson an. 1728 He..went to Oxford, and was entered a commoner of Pembroke College. 1844 Stanley Arnold I. i. 2 Having entered as a commoner, and afterwards become a scholar of the college. 1886 Oxford Calendar, Corpus Christi College 207 Exhibitions have been recently instituted..to be competed for from time to time by Commoners of the College. 1887 T. A. Trollope What I remember I. iii. 77 At Winchester there were..a hundred and thirty private pupils of the head master, or ‘commoners’. |
| fig. 1602 Return fr. Parnass. iv. ii, One of the Diuels fellow commoners, one that sizeth in the Deuils butteries. |
7. a. One who has a joint right in common lands; one who enjoys a right of common.
| 1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII, c. 13 §2 No commonour or commonours within any foreste, chase, moore..or waaste grounde. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 144 For commons these commoners crie, enclosing they may not abide. 1613 Sir H. Finch Law (1636) 314 A commoner whom another commoner wrongeth by putting in more beasts into the common then hee should. 1839 Stonehouse Axholme 77 The original grant recognized this right of the Commoners. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1691 Hartcliffe Virtues 261 The first Commoners of the Earth did employ their Heads about getting the necessary supports of Life. 1703 Rowe Fair Penit. ii. ii, The Birds, great Nature's happy Commoners. 1779–81 Johnson L.P., Fenton, He was driven out a commoner of Nature..reduced to pick up a livelihood uncertain and fortuitous. |
† 8. A common harlot, prostitute. Obs.
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well v. iii. 194 O behold this Ring..He gaue it to a Commoner a'th Campe If I be one. 1695 Congreve Love for L. i. ii, What think you of that noble commoner Mrs. Drab? |
† 9. A common-lawyer. Obs. rare.
| 1622 Dekker & Mass. Virg. Mart. iii. iii, Har. The devil..hates a civil lawyer, as a soldier does peace. Spung. How a commoner? Har. Loves him from the teeth outward. |