Part 384

Com"mon*place`, n. 1. An idea or expression wanting originality or interest; a trite or customary remark; a platitude.

2. A memorandum; something to be frequently consulted or referred to.

Whatever, in my reading, occurs concerning this our fellow creature, I do never fail to set it down by way of commonplace. Swift.

Commonplace book, a book in which records are made of things to be remembered.

Com"mon*place`, v. t. To enter in a commonplace book, or to reduce to general heads. Felton.

Com"mon*place`, v. i. To utter commonplaces; to indulge in platitudes. [Obs.] Bacon.

Com"mon*place`ness, n. The quality of being commonplace; commonness.

Com"mons (?), n. pl., 1. The mass of the people, as distinguished from the titled classes or nobility; the commonalty; the common people. [Eng.]

'T is like the commons, rude unpolished hinds, Could send such message to their sovereign. Shak.

The word commons in its present ordinary signification comprises all the people who are under the rank of peers. Blackstone.

2. The House of Commons, or lower house of the British Parliament, consisting of representatives elected by the qualified voters of counties, boroughs, and universities.

It is agreed that the Commons were no part of the great council till some ages after the Conquest. Hume.

3. Provisions; food; fare, -- as that provided at a common table in colleges and universities.

Their commons, though but coarse, were nothing scant. Dryden.

4. A club or association for boarding at a common table, as in a college, the members sharing the expenses equally; as, to board in commons.

5. A common; public pasture ground.

To shake his ears, and graze in commons. Shak.

Doctors' Commons, a place near St. Paul's Churchyard in London where the doctors of civil law used to common together, and where were the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts and offices having jurisdiction of marriage licenses, divorces, registration of wills, etc. -- To be on short commons, to have a small allowance of food. [Colloq.]

Com"mon sense" (?). See Common sense, under Sense.

Com"mon*ty (?), n. (Scots Law) A common; a piece of land in which two or more persons have a common right. Bell.

Com"mon*weal" (?), n. [Common + weal.] Commonwealth.

Such a prince, So kind a father of the commonweal. Shak.

Com"mon*wealth` (?; 277), n. [Common + wealth well-being.] 1. A state; a body politic consisting of a certain number of men, united, by compact or tacit agreement, under one form of government and system of laws.

The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth. Milton.

&fist; This term is applied to governments which are considered as free or popular, but rarely, or improperly, to an absolute government. The word signifies, strictly, the common well-being or happiness; and hence, a form of government in which the general welfare is regarded rather than the welfare of any class.

2. The whole body of people in a state; the public.

3. (Eng. Hist.) Specifically, the form of government established on the death of Charles I., in 1649, which existed under Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, ending with the abdication of the latter in 1659.

Syn. -- State; realm; republic.