pleb - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

A clipping of plebeian and plebe, sometimes also understood as a back-formation from plebs.

pleb (plural plebs)

  1. A commoner; a member of the lower class of a society.
  2. (derogatory) A common person; an unsophisticated or cultureless person.
    • 1795, John O'Keeffe, Life's Vagaries, act V, scene ii, line 85:
      You're under my roof, you pleb.
  3. (US, slang, usually derogatory) A freshman cadet at a military academy.
    • 1838, Caroline H. Gilman, The Poetry of Travelling in the United States..., page 76:
      I found some of the novices, plebs they are called, home-sick, and weary with their discipline.

common person

freshman cadet (derogatory)

pleb (not comparable)

  1. Of or concerning the lower class of a society.
  2. (derogatory) Undistinguished, commonplace, unsophisticated, vulgar, coarse.

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