1 Definition
Belonging to or characteristic of ordinary people, especially in a way seen as common, unrefined, or lacking in sophistication.
2 In Use
The senator's plebeian taste in fast food and reality TV surprised the reporters who expected something more highbrow.
3 Word Origin
plebs Lat. · the common people → plebeius Lat. · of the common people → plebeian 16th c. English
Plebeian comes from the Latin plebs, the mass of ordinary Roman citizens who stood apart from the patrician aristocracy. The adjective plebeius described anything belonging to that class, and by the 1500s English borrowed it almost unchanged to describe the common people and, eventually, their manners or tastes. Over time the word drifted from a neutral social label into one carrying a faint whiff of condescension, used to suggest something unrefined rather than simply unprivileged.
💡Fun Fact
In ancient Rome, the plebeians weren't just the poor, they were an entire political class with their own assembly, the Concilium Plebis, and their own elected officials called tribunes who could veto actions of the patrician controlled Senate. Centuries of conflict between plebeians and patricians, known as the Conflict of the Orders, eventually forced Rome to grant commoners legal protections and access to high office. So while plebeian now often lands as a mild insult about taste, its Roman origin describes people who fought hard for political power rather than people who simply lacked refinement.
