Posted on 10/18/2002 4:53:56 AM PDT by RikaStrom
In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of “word for the day”. Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the “word of the day”; in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day. The Review threads are linked for your edification. ;-) Practice makes perfect.....post on....
vulgar \vul-ger\, adjective:
vulgarly; adverb
vulgarness; noun
vulgarity;
vulgate; noun (Bonus Information!)
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar
--Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act 1, Scene 3
Word History: The word vulgar now brings to mind off-color jokes and offensive epithets, but it once had more neutral meanings. Vulgar is an example of pejoration, the process by which a word develops negative meanings over time. The ancestor of vulgar, the Latin word vulg ris (from vulgus, “the common people”), meant “of or belonging to the common people, everyday,” as well as “belonging to or associated with the lower orders.” Vulg ris also meant “ordinary,” “common (of vocabulary, for example),” and “shared by all.” An extension of this meaning was “sexually promiscuous,” a sense that could have led to the English sense of “indecent.” Our word, first recorded in a work composed in 1391, entered English during the Middle English period, and in Middle English and later English we find not only the senses of the Latin word mentioned above but also related senses. What is common may be seen as debased, and in the 17th century we begin to find instances of vulgar that make explicit what had been implicit. Vulgar then came to mean “deficient in taste, delicacy, or refinement.” From such uses vulgar has continued to go downhill, and at present “crudely indecent” is among the commonest senses of the word.
Note: The Vulgate was made by Jerome at the close of the 4th century. The Old Testament he translated mostly from the Hebrew and Chaldaic, and the New Testament he revised from an older Latin version. The Douay version, so called, is an English translation from the Vulgate.
As an interesting side note, the original Bibles with their Latin words were not understood by the layman, so images in the margins were drawn depicting what the words meant. These marginalia (notes/drawings in the margin) were usually …. Um… ehrrr.. graphic in their explanations of certain sins and wrong doings. That is also where the meaning of vulgar stems from.
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin vulgaris of the mob, vulgar, from volgus, vulgus mob, common people. Date: 14th century
Speaking of being convinced, or lack there of..... OJ Simpson is no longer 100% convinced he didn't commit the vulgar killings of his ex wife and her friend.
yes dubs, Hobbes will have to get to convincing OJ of his innocence, i guess!
Former Prime minister Diefenbaker once accused Trudeau of being infidel, something about "making love with Castro in a canoe...", but this threatens to get vulgar. We still call 'em puns, teach.
So here's a vulgar story in just aboot every sense of the word: some streaker at the Calgary Flames game last night fell on the ice knocking himself unconscious, but thereby surprising everyone with evidence that he did, indeed, have some sort of pathetic vestigial brain...
hats off to the amateur detectives, but the rubbernecking on rte 50 as you pass the HD has GOT TO STOP, they are in my way!
No, I didn't catch that. Very good call.
Excellent point.
A+
A+
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