Link Centre Dictionary

vulgar

vul·gar

UK/ˈvʌl.ɡə/ US/ˈvʌl.ɡɚ/ fairly common

adjective

1.

lacking refinement or cultivation or taste

  • “he had coarse manners but a first-rate mind”
  • “behavior that branded him as common”
  • “an untutored and uncouth human being”
  • “an uncouth soldier--a real tough guy”
  • “appealing to the vulgar taste for violence”
  • “the vulgar display of the newly rich”
2.

of or associated with the great masses of people

  • “the common people in those days suffered greatly”
  • “behavior that branded him as common”
  • “his square plebeian nose”
  • “a vulgar and objectionable person”
  • “the unwashed masses”
3.

being or characteristic of or appropriate to everyday language

  • “common parlance”
  • “a vernacular term”
  • “vernacular speakers”
  • “the vulgar tongue of the masses”
  • “the technical and vulgar names for an animal species”
Similar
4.

conspicuously and tastelessly indecent

  • “coarse language”
  • “a crude joke”
  • “crude behavior”
  • “an earthy sense of humor”
  • “a revoltingly gross expletive”
  • “a vulgar gesture”
  • “full of language so vulgar it should have been edited”

Origin

From Middle English vulgare, from Latin vulgāris, from volgus, vulgus (“mob; common folk”), from Proto-Indo-European *welH-. Compare Welsh gwala (“plenty, sufficiency”), Ancient Greek ἁλία (halía, “assembly”), εἰλέω (eiléō, “to compress”), Old Church Slavonic великъ (velikŭ, “great”).

Phrases

  • Vulgar Era
  • vulgar fraction
  • Vulgar Latin
  • vulgar Marxism

Related words

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.