commonness
(ˈkɒmənnɪs)
[f. common a. + -ness.]
1. The state or quality of being common to, or shared by, more than one; community. rare.
| 1530 Palsgr. 207/2 Commonesse, communité. 1553 N. Grimalde Cicero's Offices i. (1558) 26 Conuersation and commonnesse of table counseylynges. 1657 W. Guthrie Christian's Gt. Interest vi. (1825) 147 Communion is a commonness or a common interest between God and a man. 1715 tr. Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. I. iv. xvii. 224 By the commonness of these two Elements [Fire and Water], was hinted the Community 'twixt Husband and Wife. 1828 E. Irving Last Days 120 The commonness of blood is the great occasion of affection. |
b. The quality of being public or generally used.
| 1879 S. C. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. xi. 239 The commonness of the thoroughfare. |
2. The quality of being usual or of ordinary occurrence, frequency.
| 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. (1617) 352 Lest men should waxe cold with the commonnesse of that, the strangenesse whereof at the first inflamed them. 1639 Fuller Holy War iii. xxx. (1840) 171 The commonness of those thunder-bolts caused their contempt. 1669 H. Oldenburg in Phil. Trans. II. 430 Emeraulds are..of much less value than they were formerly, by reason of their commonness. 1876 Gladstone Synchr. Homer. 131, I would appeal..to the simple and homely test of commonness of use. |
3. The quality of being ordinary or undistinguished; plainness of style.
| 1820 L. Hunt Indicator No. 51 (1822) I. 402 A writer, who..knows how to extract a common thing from commonness. 1842 Mrs. Browning Grk. Chr. Poets 200 Wordsworth..was daring in his commonness. |
b. Meanness of character or intellect; want of excellence or distinction. (A less condemnatory term than vulgarity, in which the meanness becomes offensive.)
| 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. xxxvi, That personal pride and unreflecting egoism which I have already called commonness. 1885 Athenæum 23 May 666/3 The smooth dulness of gentility..we call commonness. 1890 Spectator 14 June, Commonness is the mark of his literary style: commonness stamps his oratory..and a vein of commonness runs..throughout his enthusiasms. |