Vulgar

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈvÊŒl.É¡É™/
• US IPA: /ˈvÊŒl.É¡Éš/

Origin

Middle English, from Latin vulgāris, from volgus, vulgus ("mob; common folk"), from Proto-Indo-European *wl̥k- (compare Welsh gwala ("plenty, sufficiency"), Ancient Greek ἁλία (halia, "assembly") εἰλέω (eileō, " to compress"), Old Church Slavonic вєликъ (velikŭ, "great").

Full definition of vulgar

Adjective

1. Debased, uncouth, distasteful, obscene.
• 1551, , A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by the Philological Society. Chapter , Also the rule of false position, with dyuers examples not onely vulgar, but some appertaynyng to the rule of Algeber.
• The construction worker made a vulgar suggestion to the girls walking down the street.
2. (classical sense) Having to do with ordinary, common people.
• Bishop FellIt might be more useful to the English reader ... to write in our vulgar language.
• BancroftThe mechanical process of multiplying books had brought the New Testament in the vulgar tongue within the reach of every class.
• 1860, G. Syffarth, "A Remarkable Seal in Dr. Abbott's Museum at New York", Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis‎, age 265Further, the same sacred name in other monuments precedes the vulgar name of King Takellothis, the sixth of the XXII. Dyn., as we have seen.

Synonyms

• (obscene) inappropriate, obscene, debased, uncouth, offensive
• (ordinary) common, ordinary, popular

Derived terms

• (obscene) vulgarity
• (ordinary) vulgar fraction, vulgate, Vulgate
• vulgar fraction