English

Noun

plebs

1. plural of pleb
2. The common people, as a whole, or as a group.

Synonyms

• (common people): the canaille, the common people, the great unwashed, the herd, the hoi polloi, the many, the masses, the multitude, the peasantry (when used figuratively), the proletariat (as a class), the rabble, the rank-and-file, the riffraff, the working class

Translations

Latin

Alternative forms

• plēbēs archaic

Etymology

From Old Latin plēbēs, from Proto-Italic *plēðūs (whence Oscan 𐌐𐌋𐌝𐌚𐌓𐌉𐌊𐌔 ‎(plífriks, “plebeian”, nom. sg.) via *plēðros), from Proto-Indo-European *pléh₁dʰuh₁ (whence Ancient Greek πληθῡ́ς ‎(plēthū́s, “crowd”)) from *pleh₁- ‎(“fill”), whence pleō. See also populus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /pleːps/, [pɫeːps]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /pleps/

Noun

plēbs f ‎(genitive plēbis); third declension

1. (countable and uncountable) plebeians, common people

Inflection

Third declension.

Descendants

References

• plebs in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• plebs in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• PLEBS in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “plebs”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • one of the people: homo plebeius, de plebe
    
  • to get oneself admitted as a plebeian: traduci ad plebem (Att. 1. 18. 4)
    
  • to transfer oneself from the patrician to the plebeian order: transitio ad plebem (Brut. 16. 62)
    
  • to transfer oneself from the patrician to the plebeian order: traductio ad plebem
    
  • to stir up the lower classes: plebem concitare, sollicitare
    
  • to hold the people in one's power, in check: plebem continere
    
  • (ambiguous) the dregs of the people: faex populi, plebis, civitatis
    
  • (ambiguous) a demagogue, agitator: plebis dux, vulgi turbator, civis turbulentus, civis rerum novarum cupidus
    
  • (ambiguous) the plebeian tribunes, whose persons are inviolable: tribuni plebis sacrosancti (Liv. 3. 19. 10)
    
  • (ambiguous) to appeal to the plebeian tribunes against a praetor's decision: appellare tribunos plebis (in aliqua re a praetore) (Liv. 2. 55)
    
• plebs in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers