commonplace (komonplas)

and a. [ Whatever in my small reading occurs concerning this our fellow-creature [the a ], I do never fail to set it down by way of commonplace. Swift , Mechanical Operations of the Spirit (Ord MS.). Nor can we excuse an author if his page does not tempt us to copy pa ages into our commonplaces , for quotation, proverbs, meditation, or other uses. Alcott , Tablets, p. 131. 2. A well-known, customary, or obvious remark; a trite or uninteresting saying. It is a commonplace that writers who po e a combination of brilliant qualities are by no means the best judges of what constitutes their chief strength. Quarterly Rev. It is a common - place indeed to a ert that the order of the universe remains the same, however our impre ions may change in regard to it. T. H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, § 69. 3. Anything occurring frequently or habitually; anything of ordinary or usual character; especially, anything that is so common as to be uninteresting; such common things collectively. Thou una uming Commonplace Of Nature, with that homely face, And yet with something of a grace, Which Love makes for thee! Words worth , To the Same Flower [Daisy]. He was a frontle , arrogant, decorous slip of the common - place; conceited, inane, insipid. Charlotte Brontë , Shirley, xv. IMG:content-0891.png:[blocks in formation] 2. Ordinary; common; uninteresting; without originality or marked individuality: as, a com mon place person. Harvey,... however, profe es to be quite a common place philosopher. Craik, Hist. Eng. Lit., II. 137. Commonplace people are only commonplace from character, and no position affects that. R. T. Cooke , Somebody's Neighbors, p. 31. commonplace (kom'on-plās), v.; pret. and pp. commonplaced, ppr. commonplacing . [ Collecting and commonplacing an universal history. Felton. II. in trans . To indulge in commonplace state ments. For the good that comes of particular and select committees and commi ions, I need not commonplace . Bacon , To King James. 1135 shape bears the impre of history. The term commons is not in itself an appropriate expre ion for the third estate; it does not signify primarily the simple freemen, rate communities, in a particular way for particular purthe plebs, but the plebs organised and combined in corpoposes. The commons are the "comm unit ates" or "univ ers i tates," the organised bodies of freemen of the shires and towns; and the estate of the commons is the "comm unit as comm unit a tum," the general body into which for the purpose of parliament those communities are combined. The term, then, as descriptive of the cla of men which is neither noble nor clerical, is drawn from the political vocabulary, and does not represent any primary distinction of cla . Stubbs, Const. Hist., § 185. 3. In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and in the Dominion of Canada, the lower house of Parliament, consisting in both instances of the commoners chosen by the people as their representatives; the House of Commons. This title was also given to the lower branch of the legislature of North Carolina from 1776 to 1868.-4. Food provided at a common table, as in colleges, where many persons eat at the same table or in the same hall; also, a college ordinary; food or fare in general. I knewe neure cardynal that he ne cam fro the pope, And we clerkes, whan they come for her [their] comunes payeth, For her pelure and her palfreyes mete. Piers Plowman (B), xix. 412. Their commons , though but coarse, were nothing scant. Dryden. .. Most of [the elders] were not present at this first commencement, and dined at the college with the scholars' ordinary commons. Winthrop, Hist. New England, II. 105. Commons, the students' daily rations, either of meat in hall, or of bread and butter for breakfast and tea. C. A. Bristed, English University, p. 41. Doctors' Commons, the familiar name of the buildings, erected in 1568, formerly occupied by the College of Advocates in London, where the civilians, or proctors and profe ors (doctors) of the civil law, used to common to gether. The buildings, situated near St. Paul's Cathedral, included a court-house for the ecclesiastical courts and the principal registry of wills for England. They were taken down in 1867, and the registry of wills was finally established in Somerset House in 1874. Doctors' Commons , which had dwelt before in Paternoster Row or at the Queen's Head, under the auspices of Dr. Henry Harvey, built itself a new home, with hall and library and plate, and privileges for importing wine. Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 325. IMG:content-0892.png:[blocks in formation] Many excellent books hath this man [Isaac Casa bon as] set forth, to the great benefite and utility of the Common- Weale of learning. Coryat, Crudities, I. 42. commonwealth (kom'on-welth'), n. [ You are a good member of the commonwealth . Shak., L. L. L., iv. 2. 'Tis the inclusive spirit that holds bodies together and advances the commonwealth of mankind. Alcott , Table-Talk, p. 97. Specifically-2. The republican or democratic form of government; a government chosen directly by the people; a republican or democratic state: as, the commonwealth of England (which see, below). In the United States, Ma achusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky are officially styled commonwealths. Trade flourishes nowhere more than in the free com mon wealths of Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries. Milton , Free Commonwealth. For the very e ence of monarchy is rule over others; the e ence of a commonwealth is self-rule; if it takes on itself the rule of others, it becomes a corporate king. E. A. Freeman , Amer. Lects., p. 335. 3. An a ociation of actors who take shares in the receipts, in lieu of salaries. The commonwealth of England, the designation applied officially to the form of government existing in England from the abolition of the monarchy in February, 1649, after the execution of Charles I., till the establishment of the protectorate under Cromwell in December, 1653, but often loosely used of the whole interval from the death of Charles I. to the restoration of Charles II. in May, 1660. During the former period, or that of the real commonwealth, the government was vested in a Council of State composed of members of the House of Commons, and the House of Lords was abolished. lowance. There were which grudged that others had too much and they too little, the Grecian widows shorter commons than the Hebrews. Hooker , Eccles. Polity, v. 78. Very welcome seemed the generous meal, after a week of suffering, exposure, and short commons. L. M. Alcott , Hospital Sketches, p. 34. To be in commons with, to feed with; share with. Thy melancholy cat, that keeps thy study, with whom thou art in commons , and dost feed on rats. Shirley, The Wedding, iv. 3.