a. [a. F. communal ad. late L. commūnāl-is, f. commūna COMMUNE.]
1. Of or belonging to a commune (senses 1 & 2).
1811. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., XXXII. 62. Communal nurseries were every where established.
1837. Penny Cycl., VIII. 412/2. France … is divided into communes … under a municipal officer … who bears the same title, that of Maire, which was borne by the head of the antient communes. He … is assisted by a communal council, the members of which are chosen by the communal electors.
1861. M. Arnold, Pop. Educ. France, 98. To be full communal teacher in France one must be 24 years old.
1864. Kirk, Chas. Bold, I. ii. 73. Self-government … was the vital principle of the communal charters.
1873. Dixon, Two Queens, I. i. In every part of Aragon, the cities had their … communal laws.
b. Of or pertaining to the Paris Commune and its adherents.
1871. Graphic, III. 310/1. When the history of the Communal insurrection in Paris comes to be written.
1881. Daily News, 20 Jan., 3/4. The elections, resulting in a crushing Communal defeat.
2. Of or pertaining to a (or the) community.
1843. Barmby, in New Age, 1 Sept., 86. So also do I declare that Baptism should become, as a religious rite, permanent, communal, and diurnal.
1851. G. S. Faber, Many Mansions (1862), 223. In the next world they … will have no national or communal existence.
1870. Lubbock, Orig. Civiliz., iii. (1875), 82. There is strong evidence that the lowest races of men live, or did live, in a state of what may perhaps be called ‘Communal Marriage.’
1888. Amy Levy, Reuben Sachs, x. 131. It consolidates one’s position both ways to stand well with the Community; and I am a very good Jew at heart, as I have often told you. But if you continue your investigations among my list of engagements you will find a good many meetings of all sorts, which are not communal.
3. Of or pertaining to the commonalty or body of citizens (L. commūne) of a burgh.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xxi. § 809. The communal or popular faction was not however crushed.—Thus ended one phase of the communal quarrel.
