plēbs

Meaning

1. uncountableplebeians, plebs, common people
   'circum fremunt': quidam hoc loco 'fremunt' id est imperia recusant intellegunt, ut apud Cassium in annalium secundo “ne quis regnum occuparet, si plebs nostra fremere imperia coepisset” , id est recusare."circum fremunt': Some in this place understand that they 'grumble' that is, protest commands, as Cassius in the second book of Annals: "lest anyone seize power, if the plebs started to 'grumble' our commands", that is, to protest.4th-5th century AD [2nd century BC], Servius, quoting Cassius Hemina, Annals, quoted in In Vergilii Aeneidos Libros:
2. countableuncountablepopulace, population, stock
   Quod si nullam progeniem tulerint favi, duas vel tres alv(e)orum plebes in unam contribuere licebit, sed prius respersas dulci liquore1954 translation by E. S. Forster, Edward H. Heffner But if the combs have produced no offspring, it will be open to you to bring together the population of two or three hives into one, but only after they have been sprinkled with sweet liquid4 CE – c. 70 CE, Columella, De re rustica 9.11
3. Late Latincountableuncountablelaity, congregation, parish
   aut si per epistolas agi placet, ipsae plebibus recitentur, ut aliquando non plebes, sed plebs una dicatur.or if you prefer the discussion to be carried out by letters, let them be read to the congregations, so that at length they may be called not "congregations", but one congregation.396 CE, Augustine of Hippo, Letters 33.4

Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers

Declension

Phrases from Meissner's Latin Phrase-Book

plebem continere

to hold the people in one's power, in check.

traductio ad plebem

to transfer oneself from the patrician to the plebeian order.

homo plebeius, de plebe

one of the people.

plebem concitare, sollicitare

to stir up the lower classes.

faex populi, plebis, civitatis

the dregs of the people.

traduci ad plebem (Att. 1. 18. 4)

to get oneself admitted as a plebeian.

transitio ad plebem (Brut. 16. 62)

to transfer oneself from the patrician to the plebeian order.

tribuni plebis sacrosancti (Liv. 3. 19. 10)

the plebeian tribunes, whose persons are inviolable.

Origins

From Old Latin plēbēs and ultimately from the root *pleh₁- (“fill”), though the exact development of the term is unclear. * According to Schrijver, the term derives from the same pre-form as Ancient Greek πληθύς (plēthús), which Schrijver derives from a hysterodynamic form *pléh₁dʰuh₁(s) (acc sg, *pl̥h₁dʰwéh₁m̥; gen sg, *pl̥h₁dʰuh₁ós). Schrijver suggests that Proto-Italic outcome of this sequence was *plēðūs, *plēðēm, *plēðes, wherein the oblique forms were generalized from the PIE accusative singular form. Ultimately, the inflectional pattern of such a form would be synchronically irregular, perhaps leading to a remodeling. The term was reshaped into a fifth-declension form on the basis of the accusative singular *plēðēm, just as diēs was created on the model of diēm. * Kortlandt, however, argues that Proto-Indo-European *-dʰw- would evolve into Latin -b-, whereas intervocalic *-dʰ- yields Latin -d- (e.g. Latin vidua < Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂). Thus, Kortlandt reconstructs an original proterodynamic paradigm. De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *plēðū- ~ *plēðw-, itself from Proto-Indo-European *pléh₁dʰ-uh₁- (acc sg, *-uh₁m̥; gen sg, *-weh₁s). * The linguist Dariusz Piwowarczyk reconstructs an original u-stem *pleh₁dʰ-us ~ *pleh₁dʰwe/os, the oblique stem of which yielded plēbis, whence the nominative singulars plēbs and plēbēs emerged via back-formation. Piwowarczyk further suggests possible contamination from pūbēs. Cognate with Oscan 𐌐𐌋𐌝𐌚𐌓𐌉𐌊𐌔 (plífriks, “plebeian”, nom. sg.), perhaps derived from Proto-Italic *plēðros (adjective). It is also possibly related to Venetic 𐌐𐌋𐌄𐌃⸱𐌄⸱𐌉 (pled⸱e⸱i). See also Latin populus and the Greek-origin borrowing plēthōra.

Related words