Word: plebian
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...antecedents to ancient royalty. If England is going to resort to etymology to prove even her slang good English, common Americans are equally justified in defending themselves. Clerk is supposed to rhyme with lark in the best English, yet no less a writer than Chaucer coupled it with world. Plebian "ain't" appears in Thackery, apparently quite good form. While if the beaux and macarouss of Pope's day were to appear today and tald as they did in the drawing rooms of London, and ordinary American might well imagine they were telling more Pat and Mike stories...
Victor Hugo was of plebian origin; hence the vigor of his physical constitution, the violence of his anger, his intellectual and moral health; hence also a certain lack of taste, of tact and of delicacy. During his youth he wandered abroad, in Italy and Spain, where he accumulated a stock of impressions. These impressions received in the course of his travels became fruitful in the dreams of his later years...
...said: In that period between the dynastic conquest and popular revolt in Germany, the lives of both Goethe and Schiller are principally laid, the one a patrician and of high rank, the other a plebian of poor parents. Goethe was born at Frankfort on the Main, August 28, 1749. His father was not very rich and had a meagre education which he gained mostly from travel; his mother was quite different, for she was a woman of broad intellect and a kind heart, and seemed to the young poet more like a companion than a mother. When only ten years...