commoner

1. comparativecomparative form of common: more common

   Sunday [train] services were far commoner than in later years.

   1952 January, M. D. Greville, “Scottish Railways in 1852”, in Railway Magazine, page 16

plural commoners

1. A member of the common people who holds no title or rank.
2. UKSomeone who is not of noble rank.

   All below them [the peers], even their children, were commoners, and in the eye of the law equal to each other.

   1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   It was revealed on Friday that Mountbatten Windsor is in line to receive a large one-off payment and an annual stipend designed to prevent him overspending in his new life as a commoner after a back-and-forth about where he would go after leaving Royal Lodge.

   2025 November 1, Sammy Gecsoyler, “Andrew hoped to meet Jeffrey Epstein after his prison release, emails reveal”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1. UKhistoricalA Member of Parliament in the House of Commons.

      I am now received in, and made a Member of this Honorable Houſe of Commons, though it be a thing ſtrange, and not common in England, for an Earl and a member of the LORDS Houſe to be made a Commoner, or removed from the upper end of the to the Lower end of the Table.

      1649, Michael Oldiſworth, The Speech, of Phillip Herbert, Late Earl of Pembroke. At His Admittance (as a Member) into the Honorable House of Commons, London, pages 4-5

   2. UKhistoricalOne eligible to be a member of the House of Commons.

      [I]f he be a Commoner of ſuch as is capable of being in the Houſe of Commons, at leaſt, unleſſe some Law have diſabled him.

      1648, Sir Roger Twysden, The Commoners Liberty: or, The English-Mans Birth-Right, London, page 2

3. UKobsoleteOxford UniversityA student who is not dependent on any foundation for support, but pays all university charges.

   1 more example

   There are to this day fellow-commoners at Queens, and surely such a distinguished commoner as Fuller would have been allowed to remain on that foundation, in which he had spent seven years, in this new capacity. The expense would have been about the same, and the only way in which I can account for his migration is either pique at being passed over, or the friendship of so famed a theologian as Dr. Ward.

   1886, Rev. Morris Joseph Fuller, “College Days (Sydney-Sussex). 1629-1631”, in The Life, Times and Writings of Thomas Fuller, D.D., 2nd edition, volume 1, London: S. Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey, pages 68–69

   Synonyms: pensioner

4. Someone who has a right over another's land. They hold common rights because of residence or land ownership in a particular manor, especially rights on common land. eg: centuries-old grazing rights

   Much good land might be gained from forests […] and from other commonable places, so as always there be a due care taken that the poor commoners have no injury.

   1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC

5. obsoleteOne sharing with another in anything.

   From the Counsell he was carried home to the Prison, and there for many days kept with bread and water, so that had the proudest Anchorite, pretending to the highest abstinence, been Commoner with him, it would have tried his swiftest Devotion to keepe pace with him.

   1651, Thomas Fuller, Abel Redevivus; republished as chapter 1, in The Life, Times and Writings of Thomas Fuller, D.D., volume 2, London: S. Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey, 1886, page 20

6. obsoleteA prostitute.

   O behold this ring / Whose high respect and rich validity / Did lack a parallel; yet for all that / He gave it to a commoner o'th' camp, / If I be one.

   c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, act 5, scene 3, lines 191–195

   Synonyms: prostitute

7. card gamesa rankless or average player in Tycoon; not the tycoon, rich, poor, or beggar.