I. ˈvəlgə(r) adjective
( sometimes -er/-est )
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin vulgaris, volgaris of the mob, of the common people, common, vulgar, from vulgus, volgus mob, common people + -aris -ar; akin to Welsh gwala sufficiency, enough, Breton a walc'h enough, Tocharian B walke long, Sanskrit varga group, body of men, and perhaps to Greek eilein to press, squeeze
1.
a. : generally used, applied, or accepted : found in ordinary practice
the vulgar course of events
b. : usual or customary in sense or interpretation : having the common or recognized meaning : taken in the ordinary way
they reject the vulgar conception of miracle — W.R.Inge
2. : of or relating to common speech : vernacular
it is quite possible for a language which is no longer the language of vulgar communication to remain the language of scholarship for generations and even for centuries — Norbert Wiener
the vulgar languages of Europe
3.
a. : of or relating to the common people : belonging to the rank and file of a community or group or to an undistinguished or indistinguishable mass : plebeian
keep their knowledge to themselves, safe from the vulgar herd — R.A.Hall b.1911
vegetarianism is a diet for heroes and saints, not for vulgar persons — G.B.Shaw
b. : widely known : generally current : public
followed the vulgar opinion of the day
must inevitably be … a history of vulgar errors — J.H.Sledd
c. : usual, typical, or ordinary in kind : of the common sort
paints the objects themselves in all their vulgar everydayness — Roger Fry
conceal the details of a commonplace vulgar death — James Joyce
d. obsolete
(1) : not developed or refined beyond the ordinary : having the qualities or understanding of common people
(2) : generally comprehensible : intelligible to the average mind
4.
a. : lacking in cultivation, perception, or taste : coarse , ill-bred , ill-mannered , rude
an essentially vulgar mind, incapable of any real finesse or delicacy — H.J.Laski
thought the farm hands who ate so greedily were vulgar — Sherwood Anderson
had quitted the ways of vulgar men, without light to guide him on a better way — Thomas Hardy
b. : falling short of an artificial gentility or veneer : regarded as common by overrefined, precious, or affected persons
she must neither move nor speak like other women, because it would be vulgar — George Savile
c. : morally crude, undeveloped, or unregenerate : self-centered , self-seeking , self-aggrandizing , gross
no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field — Sir Winston Churchill
d. : ostentatious, elaborate, or excessive especially in expenditure or display : lacking simplicity, moderation, or propriety : pretentious , vain
saw so many vulgar abuses of money as I grew older that I developed a positive disdain for the ostentatious symbols of wealth — Elsa Maxwell
5.
a. : marked by coarseness of speech or expression : crude or offensive in language : earthy
b. : lewd, obscene, or profane in expression or behavior : indecent , indelicate
names too vulgar to put into print — H.A.Chippendale
6. : marked by lack of discrimination, coherence, or selection : shaped by no unifying viewpoint or conception : flashy, congested, or extravagant in execution or performance
the vulgar … concept of spectacle rather than selective art — Roger Burlingame
a luridly spectacular, aggressively tawdry, affirmatively vulgar novelist of the fourth class — James Gray
7. : dominated or prevailingly colored by the material concerns or business of life : not relieved by graces, manners, or arts
becoming by giant strides more urban, more commercial and more vulgar — Times Literary Supplement
Synonyms: see coarse , common
II. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from vulgar, adjective
1. obsolete : vernacular
2. : a vulgar or common person