Vulgar activities!

            Vulgar—you have seen this word in the heading and you keep reading because you expect to find something titillating.  However, if you are looking for lewdness in this entry, read no further!  For many centuries, the word “vulgar” more commonly meant “common,” of the common people or of the common language.  By that meaning, when we engage in the commonplace, we engage in “vulgar” activities.

            Back in the time when English began rearing its head as a language, between the 5^th and 8^th centuries, the vast majority of people were commoners, as opposed to the very few who were of the clergy or nobility.  The language used for religion and law was “high,” but everything else was common.  “Common” did not necessarily mean “lewd,” but uneducated or lacking good manners.  In this context, Eliza Doolittle would be considered “vulgar” until Henry Higgins teaches her to speak and act in a manner appropriate to an upperclass citizen.

            Even though in modern English, we associate “vulgar” with its more off-color connotation, the meaning of “commonplace” still hangs around its edges.  Therefore, the next time you go out to shop for groceries or to engage in other commonplace activites, and someone asks what you are doing, you can validly reply, “I am engaging in vulgar activities!”  (Also, when you engage in the “vulgar” activity of posting about your activities on Facebook or Twitter, you can note that you are being vulgar.)

NOTE:  The American Heritage Dictionary includes a usage note on the changes in the meaning of “vulgar.” 

OVERHEARD while subbing in a 10^th grade English class in which students were drafting editorials:  One student complained bitterly to his editing partner that even though he was taught never to start a sentence with “and,” “so,” or “but,” that now it is acceptable.  He was outraged at this change in grammar rules!