Homely vs Common - What's the difference?
homely | common |
(dated) Lacking in beauty or elegance, plain in appearance, physically unattractive.
* 1958 , , Lolita , Chapter 15
(archaic) Characteristic of or belonging to home; domestic.
On intimate or friendly terms with (someone); familiar; at home (with a person); intimate.
* 1563 , , Chapter on William Thorpe
Domestic; tame.
Personal; private.
Friendly; kind; gracious; cordial.
(archaic) Simple; plain; familiar; unelaborate; unadorned.
* 1731 , , Strephon and Chloe, Lines 211-212
* 2001 , Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography , Cambridge University Press (ISBN 0-521-78512-X), page 167,
Mutual; shared by more than one.
* , chapter=19
, title= Occurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= Found in large numbers or in a large quantity.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=Lee A. Groat, title=Gemstones
, volume=100, issue=2, page=128, magazine=(American Scientist)
Simple, ordinary or vulgar.
* Washington Irving
* Shakespeare
* A. Murphy
*
(grammar) In some languages, particularly Germanic languages, of the gender originating from the coalescence of the masculine and feminine categories of nouns.
Of or pertaining to uncapitalized nouns in English, i.e., common nouns vs. proper nouns.
Vernacular, referring to the name of a kind of plant or animal, i.e., common name vs. scientific name.
(obsolete) Profane; polluted.
* Bible, Acts x. 15
(obsolete) Given to lewd habits; prostitute.
* L'Estrange
Mutual good, shared by more than one.
A tract of land in common ownership; common land.
* {{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)
, title= The people; the community.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
(label) The right of taking a profit in the land of another, in common either with the owner or with other persons; so called from the community of interest which arises between the claimant of the right and the owner of the soil, or between the claimants and other commoners entitled to the same right.
(obsolete) To communicate (something).
* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans, Bible , Luke XXII:
(obsolete) To converse, talk.
* , II.ix:
* Grafton
(obsolete) To have sex.
(obsolete) To participate.
(obsolete) To have a joint right with others in common ground.
(obsolete) To board together; to eat at a table in common.
As adjectives the difference between homely and common
is that homely is (dated) lacking in beauty or elegance, plain in appearance, physically unattractive while common is mutual; shared by more than one.As a noun common is
mutual good, shared by more than one.As a verb common is
(obsolete) to communicate (something).homely
English
Alternative forms
* (l) (Scotland)Adjective
(en-adj)- There is none so homely but loves a looking-glass.
- You see, she'' sees herself as a starlet; ''I see her as a sturdy, healthy but decidedly homely kid.
- With all these men I was right homely , and communed with them long and oft.
- Now Strephon daily entertains / His Chloe in the homeliest strains.
- There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.
Antonyms
* comelycommon
English
(wikipedia common)Adjective
(en-adj)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}
Katie L. Burke
In the News, volume=101, issue=3, page=193, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.}}
citation, passage=Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)}}
- the honest, heart-felt enjoyment of common life
- This fact was infamous / And ill beseeming any common man, / Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.
- above the vulgar flight of common souls
- She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
- What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common .
- a dame who herself was common
Synonyms
* (mutual ): mutual, shared * (usual ): normal, ordinary, standard, usual * (occurring in large numbers or in a large quantity ): widespread * See alsoAntonyms
* (mutual ): personal, individual * (usual ): rare, unusual, uncommon * (occurring in large numbers or in a large quantity ): few and far between, rare, uncommonSee also
* (English grammar ): epicene, feminine, masculine, neuterNoun
(en noun)The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common .}}
- the weal o' the common
Verb
(en verb)- Then entred Satan into Judas, whose syr name was iscariot (which was of the nombre off the twelve) and he went his waye, and commened with the hye prestes and officers, how he wolde betraye hym vnto them.
- So long as Guyon with her commoned , / Vnto the ground she cast her modest eye [...].
- Embassadors were sent upon both parts, and divers means of entreaty were commoned of.
- (Sir Thomas More)
- (Johnson)
