VULGAR

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VULGAR. A nontechnical term that has moved from a neutral and general to a pejorative meaning. Formerly, it referred to ordinary life and ordinary people, as opposed to an upper-class or educated minority. Vulgar Latin was the everyday Latin of the Roman Empire and, until the 19c, European VERNACULAR languages were referred to as vulgar tongues. Concomitantly, a sense of coarseness and lack of breeding and culture developed, associated with the ‘lowest orders’ of society, and now dominates, particularly with reference to language: a vulgar remark. See PARTRIDGE, RECEIVED STANDARD AND MODIFIED STANDARD, SWEARING.

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