释义 |
vul·gar I. \ˈvəlgə(r)\ adjective (sometimes -er/-est) Etymology: Middle English, from Latin vulgaris, volgaris of the mob, of the common people, common, vulgar, from vulgus, volgus mob, common people + -aris -ar; akin to Welsh gwala sufficiency, enough, Breton awalc'h enough, Tocharian B walke long, Sanskrit varga group, body of men, and perhaps to Greek eilein to press, squeeze 1. a. : generally used, applied, or accepted : found in ordinary practice < the vulgar course of events > b. : usual or customary in sense or interpretation : having the common or recognized meaning : taken in the ordinary way < they reject the vulgar conception of miracle — W.R.Inge > 2. : of or relating to common speech : vernacular < it is quite possible for a language which is no longer the language of vulgar communication to remain the language of scholarship for generations and even for centuries — Norbert Wiener > < the vulgar languages of Europe > 3. a. : of or relating to the common people : belonging to the rank and file of a community or group or to an undistinguished or indistinguishable mass : plebeian < keep their knowledge to themselves, safe from the vulgar herd — R.A.Hall b.1911 > < vegetarianism is a diet for heroes and saints, not for vulgar persons — G.B.Shaw > b. : widely known : generally current : public < followed the vulgar opinion of the day > < must inevitably be … a history of vulgar errors — J.H.Sledd > c. : usual, typical, or ordinary in kind : of the common sort < paints the objects themselves in all their vulgar everydayness — Roger Fry > < conceal the details of a commonplace vulgar death — James Joyce > d. obsolete (1) : not developed or refined beyond the ordinary : having the qualities or understanding of common people (2) : generally comprehensible : intelligible to the average mind 4. a. : lacking in cultivation, perception, or taste : coarse, ill-bred, ill-mannered, rude < an essentially vulgar mind, incapable of any real finesse or delicacy — H.J.Laski > < thought the farm hands who ate so greedily were vulgar — Sherwood Anderson > < had quitted the ways of vulgar men, without light to guide him on a better way — Thomas Hardy > b. : falling short of an artificial gentility or veneer : regarded as common by overrefined, precious, or affected persons < she must neither move nor speak like other women, because it would be vulgar — George Savile > c. : morally crude, undeveloped, or unregenerate : self-centered, self-seeking, self-aggrandizing, gross < no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field — Sir Winston Churchill > d. : ostentatious, elaborate, or excessive especially in expenditure or display : lacking simplicity, moderation, or propriety : pretentious, vain < saw so many vulgar abuses of money as I grew older that I developed a positive disdain for the ostentatious symbols of wealth — Elsa Maxwell > 5. a. : marked by coarseness of speech or expression : crude or offensive in language : earthy b. : lewd, obscene, or profane in expression or behavior : indecent, indelicate < names too vulgar to put into print — H.A.Chippendale > 6. : marked by lack of discrimination, coherence, or selection : shaped by no unifying viewpoint or conception : flashy, congested, or extravagant in execution or performance < the vulgar … concept of spectacle rather than selective art — Roger Burlingame > < a luridly spectacular, aggressively tawdry, affirmatively vulgar novelist of the fourth class — James Gray > 7. : dominated or prevailingly colored by the material concerns or business of life : not relieved by graces, manners, or arts < becoming by giant strides more urban, more commercial and more vulgar — Times Literary Supplement > Synonyms: see coarse, common II. noun (-s) Etymology: Middle English, from vulgar, adjective 1. obsolete : vernacular 2. : a vulgar or common person |