pleb
an ordinary person, a commoner
TRANSLATION
pleb = der Prolet, das einfache Volk --- GOOGLE INDEX pleb: approximately 1,400,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The Sun revealed last month that cops in Downing Street claimed Mr Mitchell called them "f****** PLEBS" when they refused to open the main gates for his bike.
(The Sun)
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Is the word PLEB an insult?
(BBC News)
(The Sun)
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Is the word PLEB an insult?
(BBC News)
Did you
know?
pleb
noun
- an ordinary person, especially one from the lower social classes
(Oxford English Dictionary)
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In September 2012, a British politician made headlines when he referred to a group of policeman as "f****** plebs" after he was denied entrance to Number 10 Downing Street, the office and residence of the Prime Minister. News of the outburst went "viral," helping this previously outdated adjective regain popularity.
Plebeian first appeared in English in 1533. It referred to "a Roman commoner," or "a member of the plebs." In contrast to the noble class — patricians, senators, consuls who claimed to be from the original citizen families of Ancient Rome — plebs were the common folk; regular guys, normal blokes, Joe Sixpack.
Pleb was already used in a negative sense in the original Latin for "someone who was not noble or privileged." It is meanwhile a mainly derogatory term for "a person of low social status, a common or vulgar person."
Plebeian and pleb seem to have become more derogatory over the years, so that now we are most likely to feel "dissed" by their use. The colloquial shortening to pleb adds a curtness which sounds peculiarly offensive to our modern ears. Perhaps with less rigid class divisions and social boundaries than before, we are even more sensitive to being categorized as belonging to the lowest social order – especially in class-conscious Britain.
Pleb has an American cousin in the word "plebe," which is also a colloquial status putdown used by American military academies to describe a "new cadet at a military or naval academy."
(adapted from the Oxford English Dictionary)
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SYNONYMS
boor, bumpkin, peasant, commoner, civilian, hick (U.S.)
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"It's a bad sign when sales people refer to their customers as plebs."
noun
- an ordinary person, especially one from the lower social classes
(Oxford English Dictionary)
---
In September 2012, a British politician made headlines when he referred to a group of policeman as "f****** plebs" after he was denied entrance to Number 10 Downing Street, the office and residence of the Prime Minister. News of the outburst went "viral," helping this previously outdated adjective regain popularity.
Plebeian first appeared in English in 1533. It referred to "a Roman commoner," or "a member of the plebs." In contrast to the noble class — patricians, senators, consuls who claimed to be from the original citizen families of Ancient Rome — plebs were the common folk; regular guys, normal blokes, Joe Sixpack.
Pleb was already used in a negative sense in the original Latin for "someone who was not noble or privileged." It is meanwhile a mainly derogatory term for "a person of low social status, a common or vulgar person."
Plebeian and pleb seem to have become more derogatory over the years, so that now we are most likely to feel "dissed" by their use. The colloquial shortening to pleb adds a curtness which sounds peculiarly offensive to our modern ears. Perhaps with less rigid class divisions and social boundaries than before, we are even more sensitive to being categorized as belonging to the lowest social order – especially in class-conscious Britain.
Pleb has an American cousin in the word "plebe," which is also a colloquial status putdown used by American military academies to describe a "new cadet at a military or naval academy."
(adapted from the Oxford English Dictionary)
---
SYNONYMS
boor, bumpkin, peasant, commoner, civilian, hick (U.S.)
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"It's a bad sign when sales people refer to their customers as plebs."
