commonness

plural commonnesses

1. countableuncountableThe quality of being common in the sense of ordinary, usual or mundane.

   So she is returning to her parents, where she will work at a corner store and save up money to move to New York. The commonness is so maddening to her. Everyone moves to New York.

   2023, Brandon Taylor, The Late Americans, Jonathan Cape, page 261

2. countableuncountableThe quality of being common in the sense of vulgar, coarse or low class.

   ‘Dem wuzn’t no high muckty mucks. Dem wuz railroad hands and dey womenfolks. You ain’t usetuh folks lak dat and Ah wuz skeered you might git all mad and quit me for takin’ you ’mongst ’em […] Befo’ us got married Ah made up mah mind not tuh let you see no commonness in me.’

   1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Virago Press (2018), page 142