English
commonalty
Commonalty comes from Old French comunalté.
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400comunalté1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500comunalte1‘a national, regional, or municipal community’
- Englishearliest quotation 1470–1485commonalty1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English commonalty
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1470–1485, Capitulum 35: “[…] and all the people wholly for this gentleness,…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400comunaltéWiktionary, English commonalty
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500comunalteWiktionary, English commonalty‘a national, regional, or municipal community’
- Englishearliest quotation 1470–1485commonaltyWiktionary, English commonalty. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1470–1485, Capitulum 35: “[…] and all the people wholly for this gentleness,…”
The story
Some senses are influenced by commonality.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *mey- ‘to attach, bind, strengthen’
mean, met, minister, minute, ministry, minor, mess, min, commission, meal, menu, missile, mere, mutual, minus, immune, compromise, dismiss, premise, commit, ammunition, immunity, mole, municipality, mayhem, noodle, intermittent, mural, moor, remuneration, ammo, mite, omit, minstrel, mitra, mitre, mitosis, meiosis, monolith, missive, 66 more
through Old Latin comoinis
telecommunication, excommunication, communistic, 11 more
through Latin commūnis ‘common, public’
communication, communist, communicate, communism, communion, communal, commune, 16 more
through Latin commūnitās ‘a community’
Today it means
noun The common people; the commonality.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “commonalty”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Old French comunalté / commonalty