A.Word.A.Day--pleb

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Apr 15, 2020

This week’s theme
Words formed by clipping

This week’s words
rad
phiz
pleb

Photo: Pedro Figueiredo

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

pleb

PRONUNCIATION:

(pleb)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A commoner, one belonging to the working class.
2. An uncultured or unsophisticated person.
3. A person of low social status.

ETYMOLOGY:

Short for plebeian, from Latin plebeius (of the common people), from plebs (common people). Earliest documented use: 1795.

NOTES:

In 2012, the British MP Andrew Mitchell resigned when it was reported that he called a police officer this word. There’s more to the story and the incident has come to be known as the Plebgate.

USAGE:

“For Cicero, free speech was the prerogative of the ‘best men’ in the Senate, not the plebs.”
Jacob Mchangama; Even Noxious Ideas Need Airing-Censorship Only Makes Them Stronger; The Economist (London, UK); Jan 31, 2020.

See more usage examples of pleb in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer, narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic -- in short, the closest thing to a genuine panacea -- known to medical science is work. -Thomas Szasz, author, professor of psychiatry (15 Apr 1920-2012)

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