Etymology: Apparently < commune v. + -y suffix³. Compare earlier commoning n. 4a and later commune n.²The ‘cramped hand and blotted lines’ of the Percy MS (thus described by Hahn in his edition of 1995) sometimes render the text illegible. The precise original form of cumunye (Hahn's reading) is indecipherable and has been read differently by different editors: Madden (1839; followed by Child (1857)) reads com'nye; Hales & Furnivall (1867; followed by Child (1884)) read comunye.

Etymology: Either < Middle French communier (see common v.), or perhaps a variant of common v. (compare the form communy at that entry, although this is not recorded as late as the 16th cent.).In the passage immediately preceding quot. 1530, Palsgrave has the following:1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 490/2 I comen, I parte or distrybute a thyng to many, Je communicque.