VULGAR, DEFINITION

Etymology

Borrowed into Middle English

from Latin vulgāris,

from volgus, vulgus (“mob; common folk”),

from Proto-Indo-European *wl̥k-.

Compare Welsh gwala (“plenty, sufficiency”), Ancient Greek ἁλία (halía, “assembly”), εἰλέω (eiléō, “to compress”),

Old Church Slavonic великъ (velikŭ, “great”).