Today, while reading Dan Brown's latest novel Inferno, I came to know that vulgar is actually derived from the Latin word vulgaris, literally meaning "of/pertaining to common people".
I really don't understand how come that got translated to mean offensive to standards of decency in English? Did the common folks exhibited indecent behavior in the Medieval times?
Best Answer
Vulgar has a lot of shades of meaning, some depending on the user and some on the hearer. Originally, your birth decided whether you were a lady/gentleman or you were "base, common and popular" as Falstaff says in Henry V. Clearly (as is obvious to the non-working class) the labouring people cannot be expected to have the same refined sensibilities as the nobility: they prefer beer to wine, fart jokes to witty wordplay, and four-letter insults to sarcastic innuendo. The former are undoubtedly vulgar, but not necessarily inferior on that account.