Emily Dickinson Lexicon

COM'MON, a. [L. communis; Fr. commun; Arm. coumun; It. comune; Sp. comun; Port. commum; Goth. gamains; Sax. gemæn; G. gemein; D. gemeen; Sw. gemen; Dan. gemeen; Ir. cumann; Goth. gamana, a fellow, fellowship. This word may be composed of cum and man, men, the plural men being equivalent to people and vulgus. The last syllable is clearly from the root of many, which seems to belong to the root of man, and mean is of the same family. Hence we see the connection between common and mean, as vulgar, from vulgus, Eng. folks.]

1. Belonging equally to more than one, or to many indefinitely; as, life and sense are common to man and beast; the common privileges of citizens; the common wants of men.
2. Belonging to the public; having no separate owner. The right to a highway is common.
3. General; serving for the use of all; as, the common prayer.
4. Universal; belonging to all; as, the earth is said to be the common mother of mankind.
5. Public; general; frequent; as, common report.
6. Usual; ordinary; as, the common operations of nature; the common forms of conveyance; the common rules of civility.
7. Of no rank or superior excellence; ordinary. Applied to men, it signifies, not noble, not distinguished by noble descent, or not distinguished by office, character or talents; as, a common man; a common soldier. Applied to things, it signifies, not distinguished by excellence or superiority; as, a common essay; a common exertion. It however is not generally equivalent to mean, which expresses something lower in rank or estimation.
8. Prostitute; lewd; as, a common woman.
9. In grammar, such verbs as signify both action and passion, are called common; as, aspernor, I despise or am despised; also, such nouns as are both masculine and feminine, as parens.
10. A common bud, in botany, is one that contains both leaves and flowers; a common peduncle, one that bears several flowers; a common perianth, one that incloses several distinct fructifications; a common receptacle, one that connects several distinct fructifications. – Martyn. Common divisor, in mathematics, is a number or quantity that divides two or more numbers or quantities without a remainder. Common law, in Great Britain and the United States, the unwritten law, the law that receives its binding force from immemorial usage and universal reception, in distinction from the written or statute law. That body of rules, principles and customs which have been received from our ancestors, and by which courts have been governed in their judicial decisions. The evidence of this law is to be found in the reports of those decisions, and the records of the courts. Some of these rules may have originated in edicts or statutes which are now lost, or in the terms and conditions of particular grants or charters; but it is most probable that many of them originated in judicial decisions founded on natural justice and equity, or on local customs. Common pleas, in Great Britain, one of the king's courts, now held in Westminster Hall. It consists of a chief justice and three other justices, and has cognizance of all civil causes, real, personal or mixed, as well by original writ, as by removal from the inferior courts. A writ of error, in the nature of an appeal, lies from this court to the court of king's bench. – Blackstone. In some of the American states, a court of common pleas is an inferior court, whose jurisdiction is limited to a county, and it is sometimes called a county court. This court is variously constituted in different states, and its powers are defined by statutes. It has jurisdiction of civil causes, and of minor offenses; but its final jurisdiction is very limited; all causes of magnitude being removable to a higher court by appeal or by writ of error. Common prayer, the liturgy of the Church of England, which all the clergy of the Church are enjoined to use, under a penalty. – Encyc. Common recovery, a legal process for recovering an estate or barring entails. Common time, in music, duple or double time, when the semibreve is equal to two minims. In common, equally with another, or with others; to be equally used or participated by two or more; as tenants in common; to provide for children in common; to assign lands to two persons in common, or to twenty in common; we enjoy the bounties of Providence in common.