English
commonalty
Commonalty comes from Old French comunalté.
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400comunalté
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500comunalte‘a national, regional, or municipal community’
- Englishearliest quotation 1470–1485commonalty
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400comunalté
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500comunalte‘a national, regional, or municipal community’
- Englishearliest quotation 1470–1485commonalty
Earliest quotation: 1470–1485, Capitulum 35: “[…] and all the people wholly for this gentleness,…”
The story
Some senses are influenced by commonality.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *mey- ‘to attach, bind, strengthen’
mean, met, minister, minute, ministry, minor, mess, min, commission, meal, menu, missile, mere, mutual, minus, immune, compromise, dismiss, premise, commit, ammunition, immunity, mole, municipality, mayhem, noodle, intermittent, mural, moor, remuneration, ammo, mite, omit, minstrel, mitra, mitre, mitosis, meiosis, monolith, missive, 67 more
through Old Latin comoinis
telecommunication, excommunication, communistic, 11 more
through Latin commūnis ‘common, public’
communication, communist, communicate, communism, communion, communal, commune, communiqué, 16 more
through Latin commūnitās ‘a community’
Today it means
noun The common people; the commonality.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old French comunalté / commonalty