hoi polloi
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Ancient Greek οἱ (hoi, “the (plural)”), and πολλοί (polloi, “many”).
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
hoi polloi (uncountable) (collective noun)
- The common people; the masses. (Used with or without the definite article.)
- 1936, George Ralph Doyle, Twenty-Five Years of Films: Reminiscences and Reflections of a Critic (The Mitre Press), page 52
- Actually, a large proportion of these ingénues have been merely good-looking working girls — hoi pretty polloi, if you like — who wished to become Hollywoodnymphs, and obtained their first chance through winning one of the countless varieties of that damnable institution, the beauty contest.
- 1953 January, District of Columbia Library Association in Washington, D.C. Libraries, volume 24, № 1, page 1
- But what, pray tell, is a “librarian”? Consult the same infallible source and you will learn: “One who has the care or charge of a library.” And where does that leave the most of us, hoi great unwashed polloi who have neither the “care” nor the “charge” of a library?
- 1975, Australasian Ornithologists’ Union, The Emu, volumes 75–76, page 91
- Being of hoi ornithological polloi and having been a stranger in some strange lands, I cheer the result because it seems to me that anyone visiting Britain for the first time can now find out quickly and accurately what birds he is likely to see where, when and how commonly.
- 1978 September 28ᵗʰ, British Broadcasting Corporation, The Listener, volumes 100–101, page 409
- Who’s the nurk at the Corporation, with O-levels in pondlife and master baking, who kept the four-quid handsome edition back to November, and put out a grotty little paperback for the nondescripts and hoi-bleeding-polloi in September?
- 1985, David Batchelor, Why Tilbury? (J. Cape; ISBN 0224023209, 9780224023207), page 74
- Briar took Travers’ elbow and withdrew him, he hated hoi giggly polloi.
- 2000 March 6ᵗʰ (9:00am), Arthur T. Murray, sci.econ (Usenet newsgroup), “Proletarians of the World Wide Web, unite against ICANN!”, Message ID: <38c3d0ce@news.victoria.tc.ca>#1/1
- Holding the meeting in Egypt is a Machiavellian way to look international but in reality to prevent hoi Interent polloi from attending the meeting.
- 2004 March 21ˢᵗ (2:00pm), Sheila Miguez Herndon, chi.eats (Usenet newsgroup), “Re: Chocolate souffle needed in Chicago limits”, Message ID: <slrnc5r41l.pcf.she@ftupet.com>
- Post a summary here for hoi unwashed polloi.
- 2010, Guy Deutscher, Through the Language Glass, Arrow 2011, p. 59:
- Naturally, the anthropological society did not wish to share its business with hoi polloi, so Herr Hagenbeck kindly offered them a private viewing.
- 2011, John Naughton, The Guardian, 8 May 2011:
- John Carey argued that most of our culture's esteemed thinkers over several centuries despised the masses and devoted much of their efforts to excluding the hoi-polloi from cultural life.
- 1936, George Ralph Doyle, Twenty-Five Years of Films: Reminiscences and Reflections of a Critic (The Mitre Press), page 52
- (nonstandard, disputed) The elite (hoi oligoi).
[edit] Usage notes
- As hoi represents a definite article in Ancient Greek, some authorities consider that the construction the hoi polloi is redundant and should not be used in English.
- Confusingly, the second definition is opposed to the first; it arose from a misunderstanding of the term, probably under influence of such terms as hoity-toity.
[edit] Synonyms
- (common people): the canaille, the common people, the great unwashed, the herd, the many, the masses, the multitude, the peasantry (when used figuratively), the plebs, the proletariat (as a class), the rabble, the rank-and-file, the riffraff, the working class
[edit] Antonyms
- (elite): the elite
[edit] Translations
the common people
the elite
