sb. Forms: 4 cominer, comouner, 5 comounner, 4–6 comuner(e, communer, comyner(e, 6 comener(e, comonar, commonour, 5– commoner. [Partly from COMMON sb.1 senses 1–2, 5; partly from COMMON v., branches I, III; partly associated with both.]
† 1. 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. 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 March, 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.
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.
† 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. Ibid. (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. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 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. 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. Shaks., 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.
