[ad. L. (post-classical) vulgāritas the mass or multitude (f. vulgār-is VULGAR a.), or f. VULGAR a. + -ITY. Cf. F. vulgarité, It. volgarità, Sp. vulgaridad, Pg. -idade.]
† 1. The commonalty; the common people. Obs.
1579. Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 73. The eternall God hath appoynted & diuided his Church militant into four parts: first, into principalitie; seconde, into nobilitie; thirde, into pastoralitie; fourthly, into vulgaritie.
1616. J. Lane, Contn. Sqr.’s T., VIII. 330. So these condemnd, thence garded weare to dye, lothd, skornd, revild, cursd of th’ vulgaritie.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., IX. 421. A proud Nobility, a familiar and manly Gentry, and a ruvidous vulgarity.
1659. Gauden, Tears Ch., Pref. 3. The meere vulgarity (like Swine) are prone to cry out more, for a little bite by the eare, than for all the sordidnesse of sin.
† b. The ordinary sort or run (of a class, etc.).
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. vii. 25. ’Tis true by the vulgarity of Philosophers there are many points beleeved without probation.
1681. Rycaut, trans. Gracian’s Critick, 190. His Humour formed of a disagreeing mould and nature to the vulgarity of the World.
† c. Used as a mock-title to designate one of the common people. Obs.–1
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. iii. 11. For true it is, (and I hope shall not offend their vulgarities) if I say they are daily mocked into errour.
† 2. General use; common diffusion. Obs. rare.
1612. Brerewood, Lang. & Relig., 33. It may well seem that the Roman tongue became not the vulgar language in any of these parts of the empire, which yet are specially instanced, for the large vulgarity of it.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 387. The Latin or primitive Roman tongue,… though living yet in the Schools,… may be said to be defunct in point of vulgarity, any time these 1000 years passed.
† 3. The quality of being usual, ordinary or commonplace; an instance of this. Obs.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. iii. 12. Although their condition and fortunes may place them many Spheres above the multitude, yet are they still within the line of vulgarity.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Vulgarity, the common manner or fashion of the vulgar people.
1665–6. Phil. Trans., I. 228. In these Vulgarities we may … trace out the cause and nature of Light, as in Jewels of greatest value.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., III. 24. He … was answer’d that he never differ’d any thing to the Morrow, or some such thing to the same learned purpose of Dissenting Sermons, which are often full of such Unscholar-like Vulgarities.
4. The quality of being vulgar, unrefined or coarse; an instance of this.
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 681. It seems too narrow a vulgarity in those who value themselves upon being raised above the vulgar, to despise every old woman … because she does not understand Latin, and has no interest in the county.
1782. V. Knox, Ess., xlvii. (1819), I. 257. Verses … now admired for that artless simplicity, which once obtained the name of coarseness and vulgarity.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., x. (1873), 92. The auditor … compares incipient grandeur with final vulgarity.
1833. Coleridge, Table-t., 20 Jan. The ignorant zealotry and sordid vulgarity of the leaders of the day!
1860. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. IX. vii. § 23. We may conclude that vulgarity consists in a deadness of the heart and body, resulting from prolonged, and especially from inherited conditions of ‘degeneracy.’
1876. Lowell, Among my Bks., Ser. II. 260. Our imagination of him has dwelt securely in ideal remoteness from the vulgarities of life.
