plebs

English

Etymology

From Latin plēbs (“the plebeian class”), variant of earlier plēbēs. Later also understood as the plural of pleb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plɛbz/

Noun

plebs

1. (historical) The plebeian class of ancient Rome.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, act IV, scene iv, line 92:

     Why I am going with my pidgeons to the tribunall Plebs.

2. The common people, especially (derogatory) the mob.
   • a. 1657, George Daniel, "The Author" in Poems, Vol. II, p. 131:

     For 'tis an Easier Thing
     To make Trees Leape, and Stones selfe-burthens bring
     (As once Amphion to the walls of Thæbes,)
     Then Stop the giddie Clamouring of Plebs...

   • 1993, Max Cavalera, "Refuse/Resist", Sepultura, Chaos A.D.

     Chaos A.D. / Tanks On The Streets / Confronting Police / Bleeding The Plebs

   • 2000, James Fentress, chapter 1, in Rebels & Mafiosi: Death in a Sicilian Landscape:

     The history of Palermo was punctuated by such uprisings; when they happened, the great barons simply fled to the safety of their country villas, leaving the urban plebs free to sack their palaces in the city.

   • 2009, Erica Benner, chapter 8, in Machiavelli's Ethics:

     The lesser plebs are not unscrupulous troublemakers.

3. plural of pleb in its various senses.

Usage notes

Although the Latin plebs was usually declined as a singular group noun, English plebs is usually treated as grammatically plural in all its senses.

Synonyms

• (common people): the canaille, the common people, the great unwashed, the herd, the hoi polloi, the many, the masses, the multitude, the peasantry (rural), the proletariat (urban), the rabble, the rank-and-file, the riffraff, the working class, the mob

Related terms

• plebeian, plebe, pleb

Derived terms

• plebiscite

Translations

The common people

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 庶民 (zh) (shùmín)

• Czech: plebs (cs) m
• Esperanto: popolamaso
• French: plèbe (fr) f
• Galician: plebe (gl) f
• German: Plebs (de) f
• Icelandic: plebbi m
• Italian: plebe (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 庶民 (ja) (しょみん, shomin)
• Korean: 서민 (ko) (seomin)
• Persian: عوام (fa) ('avâm)
• Polish: plebs (pl) m
• Portuguese: plebe (pt)
• Romanian: plebe (ro)
• Russian: плебс (ru) m (plebs), чернь (ru) f (černʹ), плебе́и (ru) m pl (plebéi)
• Spanish: plebe (es) f

References

• “plebs, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2006.

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Czech

Noun

1. plebs, commoners

Related terms

• plebej
• plebejec

Further reading

• Template:R:PSJC
• Template:R:SSJC

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Latin

Alternative forms

• plēbēs, plēbis (archaic)

Etymology

From Old Latin plēbēs, from Proto-Italic *plēðūs (whence Oscan 𐌐𐌋𐌝𐌚𐌓𐌉𐌊𐌔 (plífriks, “plebeian”, nom. sg.) via *plēðros), from Proto-Indo-European *pléh₁dʰuh₁ (whence Ancient Greek πληθῡ́ς (plēthū́s, “crowd”)) from *pleh₁- (“fill”), whence pleō. See also populus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /pleːbs/, [pɫ̪eːps̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /plebs/, [plɛbs]

Noun

plēbs f (genitive plēbis); third declension

1. (countable and uncountable) plebeians, common people

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem or imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	plēbs	plēbēs
genitive	plēbis	plēbium plēbum
dative	plēbī	plēbibus
accusative	plēbem	plēbēs plēbīs
ablative	plēbe	plēbibus
vocative	plēbs	plēbēs

The non-i-stem variant is found in Medieval Latin.

Derived terms

• plēbēcula/ plēbicula
• plēbēius
• plēbicola
• plēbiscītum
• plēbitās

Descendants

• English: plebs, pleb
• French: plèbe f
• Friulian: plêv
• Greek: πληβείος m (pliveíos), πληβεία f (pliveía)
• Icelandic: plebbi m

• Italian: pieve f, plebe f
• Portuguese: plebe f
• Romanian: plebe f
• Romansch: plaiv
• Spanish: plebe f
• Welsh: plwyf (from the plural)

References

• “plebs”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “plebs”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• plebs in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• plebs in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • one of the people: homo plebeius, de plebe
    
  • to get oneself admitted as a plebeian: traduci ad plebem (Att. 1. 18. 4)
    
  • to transfer oneself from the patrician to the plebeian order: transitio ad plebem (Brut. 16. 62)
    
  • to transfer oneself from the patrician to the plebeian order: traductio ad plebem
    
  • to stir up the lower classes: plebem concitare, sollicitare
    
  • to hold the people in one's power, in check: plebem continere
    
  • (ambiguous) the dregs of the people: faex populi, plebis, civitatis
    
  • (ambiguous) a demagogue, agitator: plebis dux, vulgi turbator, civis turbulentus, civis rerum novarum cupidus
    
  • (ambiguous) the plebeian tribunes, whose persons are inviolable: tribuni plebis sacrosancti (Liv. 3. 19. 10)
    
  • (ambiguous) to appeal to the plebeian tribunes against a praetor's decision: appellare tribunos plebis (in aliqua re a praetore) (Liv. 2. 55)
    
• “plebs”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers