1. Of or pertaining to the mass, or multitude, of people; common; general; ordinary; public; hence, in general
use; vernacular. "As common as any the most vulgar thing to sense. " Shak.
Things vulgar, and well-weighed, scarce worth the praise.
Milton.
It might be more useful to the English reader . . . to write in our vulgar language.
Bp. Fell.
The mechanical process of multiplying books had brought the New Testament in the vulgar tongue
within the reach of every class.
Bancroft. 2. Belonging or relating to the common people, as distinguished from the cultivated or educated; pertaining
to common life; plebeian; not select or distinguished; hence, sometimes, of little or no value. "Like the
vulgar sort of market men." Shak.
Men who have passed all their time in low and vulgar life.
Addison.
In reading an account of a battle, we follow the hero with our whole attention, but seldom reflect on
the
vulgar heaps of slaughter.
Rambler. 3. Hence, lacking cultivation or refinement; rustic; boorish; also, offensive to good taste or refined feelings; low; coarse; mean; base; as,
vulgar men, minds, language, or manners.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Shak. Vulgar fraction. (Arith.) See under Fraction.
Vulgar
(Vul"gar), n. [Cf. F. vulgaire.]
1. One of the common people; a vulgar person. [Obs.]
These vile vulgars are extremely proud.
Chapman. 2. The vernacular, or common language. [Obs.]
Vulgarian
(Vul*ga"ri*an) n. A vulgar person; one who has vulgar ideas. Used also adjectively.
Vulgarism
(Vul"gar*ism) n. [Cf. F. vulgarisme.]
1. Grossness; rudeness; vulgarity.
2. A vulgar phrase or expression.
A fastidious taste will find offense in the occasional vulgarisms, or what we now call "slang," which not a
few of our writers seem to have affected.
Coleridge. Vulgarity
(Vul*gar"i*ty) n. [Cf. F. vulgarité, L. vulgaritas the multitude.]
1. The quality or state of being vulgar; mean condition of life; the state of the lower classes of society.
Sir T. Browne.
2. Grossness or clownishness of manners of language; absence of refinement; coarseness.
The reprobate vulgarity of the frequenters of Bartholomew Fair.
B. Jonson. Vulgarization
(Vul`gar*i*za"tion) n. The act or process of making vulgar, or common.
