[f. VULGAR a. + -ISM. Cf. Sp. and Pg. vulgarismo, It. volgarismo.]
† 1. A common or ordinary expression. Obs.–1
1644. Bulwer, Chirol., 13. An ineffable latitude of significations: whose vulgarismes, varied through such multiplicity of senses, are of that note and consequence, that [etc.].
2. A vulgar phrase or expression; a colloquialism of a low or unrefined character.
1746. H. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 28 March. The Countess … has entertained the town with an excellent vulgarism.
1758. L. Temple, Sketches (ed. 2), 43. The Sentiments … cannot be exprest with too much Plainness and Simplicity; provided all Vulgarisms are as much as possible avoided.
1798. Brit. Critic, XI. 136. It took him, is a grose vulgarism.
1822. Mrs. Shelley, in Dowden, Shelley (1887), II. 381. We hear that she lends him and his mother (to use a vulgarism) a devil of a life.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. (1882), 449. The slipshod vulgarisms of the shopkeeper of to-day.
b. A popular corruption of a name. rare–1.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos (1877), I. xix. 136. This romantic story,… celebrates the Saracen lady by the extraordinary title of Susy Pye, perhaps a vulgarism of her original Eastern name.
3. The quality or character of being vulgar; vulgarity.
1749. Chesterf., Lett. to Son, 27 Sept. Vulgarism in language is the … distinguishing characteristic of bad company, and a bad education.
1771. Sir J. Reynolds, Disc., iv. (1876), 345. Familiar and interesting to all Europe without being degraded by the vulgarism of ordinary life in any country.
1788. Mrs. Hughes, Henry & Isabella, I. 168. They were generally written in a style of pretence and sometimes vulgarism.
1819. Keats, Lines to Fanny, 24. Shall I gulp wine? No, that is vulgarism.
1831. Examiner, 436/2. We are … struck by the absence of vulgarism in the performance.
b. An instance of vulgarity; a vulgar action, practice, habit, etc.
1785. G. A. Bellamy, Apology (ed. 3), IV. 158. The complaints of having nothing to do, is such a vulgarism, that I wonder any persons … can degrade themselves by the acknowledgement.
1814. Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, xlvi. Visions of good and ill breeding, of old vulgarisms and new gentilities were before her.
1834. Tait’s Mag., I. 54/1. Since the scent of that flower has been voted a vulgarism!
