gentleman-commoner

[ jen-tl-muhn-kom-uh-ner ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

, plural gen·tle·men-com·mon·ers.

(formerly) a member of a class of commoners enjoying special privileges at Oxford University.

First recorded in 1680–90

Gibbon was a gentleman commoner, and was permitted by the easy discipline of Magdalen to behave just as he pleased.

A gentleman commoner of Queen's was president of a 'hellfire club,' and brutal horseplay was still practised upon the weaker lads.

The next ten years passed in a round of gaiety which took the form of courtship by no one under the rank of gentleman commoner.

Braburn, a gentleman commoner of Lincoln college, gave a silver arrow to be shot for by the archers of the university of Oxford.

He was a commoner of Trinity Colledge in Oxford.

April 24, 2024gallimaufry

[gal-uh-maw-free ]

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