discommon

English

Etymology

From Middle English discomyned, discomynned, dyscomynyd (participle); equivalent to dis- +‎ common.

Verb

discommon (third-person singular simple present discommons, present participle discommoning, simple past and past participle discommoned)

1. (historical, UK) To deprive of the privilege of citizenship of a town or city.
   • 1600, Francis Hastings, An apologie or defence of the watch-word, page 161:

     But what punishment is laid vpon Recusants, by the rare clemencie of her Maiestie, any way comparable to those that Christian Emperours haue made against Recusants, or such as refused to communicate with the Church of Christ? They were discommoned from buying and selling, from bequeathing their goods or lands to others, or receiuing anie Legacies from others, yea they might not inioy their fathers inheritaunce, &c. What like thing is done to English Recusants? or rather what not vnlike? they buy, they sell, they bequeath their goods at their pleasure, they receiue legacies, and inioy inheritances.

   • 1647, Paul Bayne, An Entire Commentary upon the Whole Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians, page 277:

     Let us not leave our fellowship, and estrange our selves from Gods people […] To be discommoned a Town, or for a Citizen to be banished a city, is a great evill: But to be an exile from Gods city, and discommoned [i.e. excommunicated] from the communion of Saints, this is lamentable indeed.

   • 1835, Henry Alworth Merewether, The History of the Boroughs and Municipal Corporations of the United Kingdom, volume 2, page 1252:

     And as a confirmation of the obligation of residence, which we have before insisted upon, it appears, the person, in strict conformity with the common law, was "discommoned," or disfranchised, because he had not inhabited within the city for the space of one year.

2. (historical, law) To deprive (lands etc.) of commonable quality, by enclosing or appropriating.
   • 1888, William Francis Barry, The New Antigone: A Romance, page 53:

     She saw in front of her a two-storey house, standing back from the gravel pathway, on the edge of a triangular piece of turf which represented, no doubt, a more extensive village green, now discommoned and taken in by the private dwellings scattered around.

   • 2003, Alan Crosby, A History of Woking, page 73:

     […] acres had already been discommoned – that is, they were no longer available to tenants, cottagers and freeholders […]

3. To exclude from using a commonable resource, such as land.
   • 1639, Robert Abbot, A Triall of our Church-forsakers, page 117:

     I know we may by way of admonition, before hand, tell them of the danger, and by way of perswasion presse them better to prepare themselves: but wee may not for their sakes discommon our selves from the table of the Lord .

   • 1825, Joseph Hall, Virgidemiarum: Satires, page 91:

     Whiles thou discommonest thy neighbours keyne, And warn'st that none feed on thy field saue thine;."

   • 1832, The Christian examiner and Church of Ireland magazine, page 926:

     Let them be separated, let not me separate myself; Let the wicked be discommon'd, not the godly, for the godly are in the right, and may stand in it as a man at his own table in his own house, or in his own ground;

   • 1864, John Rudall, Fruits from Canaan's Boughs, page 235:

     Cry, now thou art among scholars, tradesmen, jurors, lawyers, landlords, judges— cry against those houses which discommon thee, against those shops which sell thee, those pleaders which purse thee, those jurors which stretch and rack thee!

4. (transitive, UK, Oxford and Cambridge universities, historical) To deprive of the right to deal with undergraduates.

   Synonym: discommons

   • 1851, Oxford University Statutes: The University statutes, from 1767 to 1850:

     […] persons violating the above statute are liable to a fine for the first offence, and to be discommoned for the second.

   • 2013, Ian Gadd, Ian Anders Gadd, Simon Eliot, History of Oxford University Press, page 559:

     It could 'discommon' any citizen (most of whom, the Laudian statutes grumbled, 'catch at every occasion of impugning the University privileges') or privileged person should they 'oppose the University privileges'; for a privileged person this meant a suspension of privileges and for a citizen an embargo on dealing with any member of the University.

References

• “discommon”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.