COMMON - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

COMMONAuthored

The Law Mind • 1394 words

Definition

COMMON functions as both an adjective and a noun in legal usage, and the two uses are largely independent of each other.

1. As an adjective: Shared among several; belonging to or affecting more than one person or the public at large; ordinary or customary. In this sense, "common" modifies a vast range of legal concepts — common law, common carrier, common ancestor, common interest, common property — each phrase carrying its own doctrinal weight.

2. As a noun (the primary technical sense): An incorporeal hereditament consisting of a right to take some portion of the natural produce of land or water belonging to another person, held by one person jointly with others or alongside the landowner. It is a right in alieno solo — a right exercised in the soil of another. The right does not extend to taking the entire product or to excluding the owner entirely; those rights would indicate ownership, not a common. Commons originated as grants and could become established by long use, but the interest runs with the dominant tenement and cannot generally be severed from it.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): In ordinary modern English, "common" primarily means shared, ordinary, or widespread. As a verb (now archaic), it once meant to participate jointly, to board together, or to hold land in common.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Belonging or relating equally to more than one; general; public; not private. Also used to describe things of ordinary or inferior quality.

The legal noun "common" — a right to take produce from another's land — has no direct counterpart in modern everyday speech. The adjective sense is close to the ordinary meaning, but in legal compounds like "common carrier," "common law," or "tenancy in common," the modifier takes on specific doctrinal content that far exceeds ordinary usage. Researchers should be alert to this compression: a single word appearing as a modifier may carry an entire doctrine behind it.

Common Confusion

Three distinct uses produce persistent confusion in historical legal sources:

First, common as a noun (the property right described above) is often conflated with "the commons" as a physical place — the village green or shared grazing land. The physical commons is the land itself; the right of common is the incorporeal entitlement to use it. One person may own the soil of a commons while others hold rights of common over it.

Second, the adjective "common" in phrases like "common law" and "common recovery" signals entirely separate legal doctrines. Researchers encountering "common" in historical indices must determine which grammatical role the word is playing before assuming they have located relevant material.

Third, Burrill draws a distinction, derived from Bracton, between "public" and "common" as terms of art: public things belong to all people in their capacity as humans; common things may extend even to animals (air, running water). This distinction has largely collapsed in modern usage but appears in early common law treatises and can create interpretive difficulty in original sources.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

The noun "common" has several formally recognized subtypes based on the nature of the produce taken:

- Common of pasture: The right to graze one's animals on another's land. The most frequently litigated type in historical English and early American cases.
- Common of estovers: The right to take wood from another's land for fuel, fencing, or building.
- Common of piscary: The right to fish in waters belonging to another.
- Common of turbary: The right to cut turf or peat for use as fuel.
- Common of digging (common in the soil): The right to take sand, gravel, stone, or other minerals from another's land.
- Common appendant: Attached by operation of law to arable land; the oldest and most limited form, arising from the feudal system.
- Common appurtenant: Attached to land by grant or prescription; broader in scope than appendant.
- Common in gross: Personal to the holder, not attached to any dominant tenement; assignable separately.
- Common because of vicinage: A limited mutual right between neighboring commoners, more a defense against trespass than a true right.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers face an indexing problem with "common" that is arguably unique in the legal lexicon. Because the word functions as both a freestanding noun with specific property-law meaning and as the first element of hundreds of compound legal terms, historical digests and indexes use it inconsistently. A nineteenth-century digest index entry for "COMMON" may collect rights of common, common law principles, common nuisance, common carriers, and common recovery in a single undifferentiated list — or it may scatter them across separate entries with no cross-reference.

For property researchers: Rights of common are most fully treated in English sources and in early American cases in jurisdictions that inherited English land law directly. The doctrine attenuated rapidly in American practice as fee simple ownership became the dominant form and open-range land use declined. By the late nineteenth century, rights of common in the soil appear in American reports mainly in connection with mineral rights disputes, where the concept was adapted to new purposes.

For researchers tracing compound terms: When searching the Law Mind corpus for terms like "common interest," "common fund," "common carrier," or "common law," be aware that historical sources may file these under COMMON as the lead word, or under the second element, or both. Cross-checking is essential.

The distinction between common appendant, appurtenant, and in gross matters for tracing whether a claimed right runs with land in a chain of title — a question that appears in American cases involving water rights, fishing rights, and access easements well into the twentieth century, even where the vocabulary of "common" is not used.

Historical Dictionary Support

The six source dictionaries agree on the core noun definition: a right in alieno solo to take some natural produce from another's land, held by one or more persons jointly. All cite the same cluster of early American and English authorities for this proposition (Sergeant & Rawle, Wendell, Johnson, Kent), suggesting shared reliance on a common tradition rather than independent verification.

Bouvier and Black (both editions) provide the most complete typologies of subtypes. Rapalje & Lawrence offer a useful clarifying negative: the right to take the whole product, or to exclude the owner entirely, is inconsistent with a right of common and suggests ownership instead. This is genuinely instructive for resolving disputed cases.

Burrill is alone in engaging the public/common distinction from Bracton, which gives his entry historical depth the others lack. Anderson is the most systematic on the adjectival uses, listing recognized legal compounds at length, which makes his entry the most useful starting point for researchers interested in "common" as a modifier rather than a property right.

None of the historical dictionaries adequately address the American transformation of common-law rights of common into analogous doctrines governing water, mineral, and access rights under different names. Researchers should not assume the silence of American cases on "rights of common" means the underlying concepts are absent — they may simply have been transposed.

Jurisdictional Note

True rights of common as an incorporeal hereditament are primarily a feature of English and early colonial American law. Most American states never developed a robust domestic law of commons, and the doctrine's practical significance declined sharply after the mid-nineteenth century. Researchers working in western states should look to water rights and grazing rights law, which absorbed some of the same functional concerns under entirely different doctrinal frameworks.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

property_10: Concurrent Ownership — Tenancy in Common (The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia)
remedies_65: Common Fund and Common Benefit Doctrines — Fee Awards from Litigation Proceeds (The Law Mind Remedies & Equity Encyclopedia)
civpro_165: Common Interest Doctrine and Joint Defense Privilege (The Law Mind Civil Procedure & Evidence Encyclopedia)

COMMONmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

As an adjective, this word denotes usual, ordinary, accustomed; shared among several; owned by several jointly. COMMON, n. An incorporeal heredita- ment which consists in a profit which one man has in connection with one or more others in the land of another. 12 Serg. & R. 32; 10 Wend. 647; 11 Johns. 498. Common, in English law, is an incorporeal right which lies in grant, originally com- mencing on some agreement between lords and tenants, which by time has been formed into prescription, and continues good, al- though there be no deed or instrument to prove the original contract. 4 Coke, 37; 1 Crabb, Real Prop. p. 258, § 268. Common, or a right of common, is a right or privilege which several persons have to the prod- uce of the lands or waters of another. Thus, common of pasture is a right of feeding the beasts of one person on the lands of another; common of estovers is the right a tenant has of taking neces- sary wood and timber from the woods of the lord for fuel, fencing, etc. 10 Wend. 647. commence by grant within time of memory, or, in other words, may be created at the present day; it may be claimed as annexed to any kind of land, and may be claimed for beasts not commonable, as well as those that are. 2 Bl. Comm. 33. The sev-

COMMONmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

An incorporeal heredita ment, which consists in a profit which one man has in connection with one or more others in the land of another. 12 S. & R. 82; 10 Wend. 647; 16 Johns. 14, 30; 10 Pick. 364; 8 Kent 403. Common of digging, or common in the soil, is the right to take for one's own use part of the soil or minerals in another's lands; the most usual subjects of the right are sand, gravel, stones and clay. It is of a very similar nature to common of estovers and of turbary. Elton, Com. 109; Black, L. Dict. Common of estovers is the liberty of tak- ing necessary wood, for the use of furniture of a house or farm, from another man's estate. This right is inseparably attached to the house or farm, and is not apportion- able. If, therefore, a farm entitled to estovers be divided by the act of the party among several tenants, neither of them can take estovers, and the right is extinguished; 2 Bla. Com. 34; Plowd. 381; 10 Wend. 639. It is to be distinguished from the right to estovers which a tenant for life has in the estate which he occupies. See ESTOVERS. Common of pasture is the right of feeding one's beast on another's land. It is either appendant, appurtenant, because of vicin- age, or in gross. Common of piscary is the liberty of fish- ing in another man's water. 2 Bla. Com. 34. See FISHERY. Common of shack. The right of persons occupying lands, lying together in the same common field, to turn out their cattle after harvest to feed promiscuously in that field. Whart. Dict.; Steph. Com., 11th ed. 623; 1 B. & Ald. 710. Common of turbary is the liberty of dig- ging turf in another man's ground. Com- mon of turbary can only be appendant or appurtenant to a house, not to lands, be- cause turves are to be spent in the house; 4 Co. 37; 3 Atk. 189; Noy. 145; 7 East 127. The taking seaweed from a beach is a com- monable right in Rhode Island; 2 Curt. C. C. 571; 1 R. I. 106; 2 id. 218. In Virginia there are statutory provisions concerning the use of all unappropriated lands on the Chesapeake Bay, on the shore of the sea, or of any river or creek, and the bed of any river or creek in the eastern part of the com- monwealth, ungranted and used as common; Va. Code, c. 62, § 1. In most of the cities and towns in the United States, there are considerable tracts of land appropriated to public use. These commons were generally laid out with the cities or towns where they are found, either by the original proprietors or by the early inhabitants. Where land thus appropriated has been accepted by the public, or where individuals have purchased lots adjoining land so appro- priated, under the expectation excited by its proprietors that it should so remain, the proprietors cannot resume their exclusive ownership; 8 Vt. 521; 10 Pick. 310; 4 Day 328; 1 Ired. 144; 7 Watts 394. And see 14 Mass. 440; 2 id. 475; 37 Mich. 291; 2 Pick. 475; 12 S. & R. 32; 6 Vt. 355.

COMMONmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

(238) tic, and the committee of the estate being responsible for its proper management. Elm. Pr. Lun. passim; Pope Lun. 92. - 1. In general.-In the technical sense of the word, a common (or right of common) is the right of taking some part of any natural product of the land or water belonging to another man in common with him. Therefore, the right to take the whole of the product, or to exclude the owner from taking it, is not a common-though sometimes called a sole common-but an estate in land: "For it is against the nature of this word common, and it was implied in the first (239) : grant that the owner of the soil should take his been arable. Wms. Comm. 31; Wms. Real reasonable profit there." (Co. Litt. 122a.) Prop. Append. (c); Elt. Com. 47. See APPENDHence, also, a right of common cannot be ANT; LEVANT AND COUCHANT. claimed by custom, because, the number of claimants under a custom being indefinite, the subject of the right would be liable to be entirely destroyed. (Wms. Comm. 194; Shelf. R. P. Stat. 30.) The only exception to this rule occurs in the case of copyholders, who may claim a right of common against their lord by virtue of a custom in the manor. The reason of this is, that copyholders are but tenants at will to their lord, and therefore cannot claim by prescription, except in his name; as they could not claim a right in his name against himself, they would not be able to claim at all if they were not allowed to claim under a custom. (Wms. Comm. 17; Elt. Copyh. 215.) Most rights of common may be created by grant 27. Simple-Reciprocal-Alternate. appurtenant is a right annexed to certain lands, 26. Appurtenant. -Common of pasture by virtue of which the owner of those lands feeds cattle on the soil of another person (Cooke Incl. 19; Wms. Comm. 168); it differs from the right of common appendant (supra ? 5) in all the characteristics which arise from the connection of the latter with the socage tenure of ancient arable land in a manor (Elt. Com. 62); it may, therefore, be held by copyholders or prescription since quia emptores, and is not necesstrangers to a manor, and may arise by grant or sarily confined to commonable beasts. Co. Litt. 122 a. See COMMONABLE, § 1. at the present day, or may be claimed by prescription. See APPENDANT; APPURTENANT; Lost GRANT; PRESCRIPTION. § 2. A common is an incorporeal hereditament, and a species of profit à prendre. See HEREDITAMENT; PROFIT. 3. A person having a right of common is called a "commoner." See COMMONABLE. 4. Common of pasture. Commons are of four principal kinds, viz., common of pasture, of estovers, of turbary, piscary; the remaining rights are generally classed together as miscellaneous. Common of pasture is the right of feeding one's beasts upon another's land; the most usual instances of this are: the right of the tenants of a manor to pasture their beasts on the waste, woodlands, &c., of the manor; the right of pasture over royal forests possessed by persons owning land within the forest (Commissioners of Sewers v. Glasse, L. R. 19 Eq. 134; Cooke Incl. 45), and the reciprocal rights of pasture possessed by owners of shack-lands, lammas-lands, lot-meadows, &c. (Cooke Incl. 42; infra &7, and COMMONABLE, 2.) But any owner of land in fee-simple may grant to another person the right of pasturing animals on his land, and the right of common so created may be either appurtenant or in gross. Wms. Comm. 168, 184. 5. Appendant.-Common of pasture is either appendant, appurtenant, because of vicinage, or in gross. (Co. Litt. 122a.) Common of pasture appendant is the right which every freehold tenant of a manor possesses to feed his cattle used in agriculture (i. e. horses, cattle and sheep) upon the lord's waste, provided they are levant and couchant on the tenant's freehold land. It is said to exist "of common right," because (as it is usually put) on every original feoffinent of arable land to be held of the manor in socage, the law, without express words, presumed a grant of sufficient pasture in the waste for the beasts' levant and couchant on the land, The more correct view appears to be that the -Common of pasture appurtenant may be either simple or reciprocal: the former occurs where the owner of the waste has no pasture over the tenant's land in return, the latter where neighbors have a mutual right of turning out cattle to feed on each other's land. The simple right is usually exercised upon the waste of a manor by the tenants, and strangers who can show a grant or prescribe; these may be either individual land-owners in the neighborhood, or a whole The reciprocal right is found in shack-fields, body of tenants within an adjoining lordship. and open meadows or common fields, which at certain seasons are open to the cattle of all the proprietors of allotments. Such a right may also be alternate as well as reciprocal, (Elt. Com. 65; Wms. Comm. 57,) as if one township has common in another during one season, and the second has common in the first during the next, and so on. Anon., 1 Dyer 47 b. 8. Pur cause de vicinage. Common because of vicinage ("pur cause de vicinage," causa vicinagii) is where the tenants of two adjoining manors, the inhabitants of two adjoining townships, or the owners of two contiguous pieces of land, (see Jones ข. Robin, 10 Ad. & E. (N. S.) 620,) have from time immemorial "intercommoned," i. e, allowed each other's cattle to stray and pasture on each other's land, or on a waste or open field lying between their lands. The reason for which this kind of common is allowed in law to exist is to avoid the (240) created either (1) by the owner of a common of another, has been found to exist; in the case appurtenant for a fixed number of cattle alienating the common without the tenement to which it belongs, or (2) by the owner of land granting to another man and his heirs the right to put beasts on the land of the grantor, with or without restrictions as to number and time of year. It is also said, that a coninion in gross may be claimed by prescription in respect of mere inheritance. Wms. Com. 184. See PRESCRIPTION. 10. Certainty. -Common appendant, appurtenant, and in gross, are either certain by number, i. e. for a certain number of beasts, or certain by levancy and couchancy (q. v.) or sans nombre (q. v.) Co. Litt. 122 a. The following rights of common differ from common of pasture, in being limited to those parts of the land where the product is found, while common of pasture extends to every place across which the cattle may wander in search of food, although there may be no pasture there (Elt. Com. 229): 11. Common of estovers. -The right of taking from the woods or waste lands of another person a reasonable portion of his timber or underwood, for use in the commoner's ten6. ment. As to the different kinds of estovers, see (241) certain parish, without otherwise particularizing or describing the close, and the defendant himself happened to have any freehold land in the same parish, he frequently affected to mistake the close in question for his own, and pleaded what was called the " common bar," viz., that 82; 2 Ga. 349; 1 Pick. (Mass.) 51; 3 Wend. COMMON CARRIER, (defined). Dav. (U. S.) (N. Y.) 158, 161; 13 Id. 387, 611; 14 Id. 215, 225; 7 Hill (N. Y.) 533, 564; 1 Hayw. (N. C.) 14; 32 Pa. St. 208; 2 Wheel. Am. C. L. 524. the close in which the trespass was committed 556; 30 Miss. 231; 19 Barb. (N. Y.) 346; 28 Id. (who is). 2 Harr. (Del.) 48; 19 III. was his own freehold, which compelled the 403; 5 Duer (N. Y.) 43, 45; 10 Johns. (N. Y.) plaintiff to new assign, i. e. to assign his cause 1; 3 Wend. (N. Y.) 158; 5 Id. 33; 25 Pa. St. of complaint over again, alleging that he brought his action in respect of a trespass committed upon a different close from that claimed by the defendant as his own freehold. - Brown. 120; 4 Heisk. (Tenn.) 661. (who is not). 25 Mich. 329; 3 Abb. (N. Y.) App. Dec. 610; 19 Barb. (N. Ý.) 577; 12 Johns. (N. Y.) 232; 49 N. Y. 122; 1 Hayw. (N. C.) 14; 20 Ohio 69; 83 Pa. St. 446; 18 Tex. COMMON BARRETRY.-See BAR498; 2 Car. & P. 598; 2 Com. B. 887. RETRY, 2.. (carrying parcels by stage coach). 2 Dana (Ky.) 430; 1 Pick. (Mass.) 50, 53; 7 N. COMMON BARRETOR, (in an indictment). 11 H. 157; 3 Barb. (N. Y.) 388; 5 Rawle (Pa.) Pick. (Mass.) 438. (242) in his custody, unless he could prove a special Underh. Torts 42; Priestly v. Fowler, 3 contract to the contrary. (Chit. Cont. 455; Mees. & W. 1; Wiggett v. Fox, 11 Ex. 832. Hodg. Railw. 599.) Its principal provisions are: (1) that no carrier by land is to be liable for loss of or injury to certain valuable descriptions of property (coin, jewelry, pictures, &c.,) beyond the value of £10, unless their value was declared at the time of delivery (21); (2) that any carrier may require an increased rate of charge for such articles over the value of £10, by a notice affixed in his receiving house, and all persons delivering such articles are bound by the notice, without proof of its having come to their knowledge. (2.) As to the general effect of the act, see Chit. 457. The Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1854, 87, contains further provisions limiting the liability of railway companies for loss or injury to horses, cattle, &c. Hodg. Railw. 592. (243) COMMON GAMBLER, (indictable at common law). 1 Dak. T. 293. COMMON GAMBLERS, (in a statute). 6 Abb. (N. Y.) Pr. N. s. 132. COMMON HALL.-A court in the city of London, at which all the citizens, or such as are free of the city, have a right to attend. - Wharton. COMMON HIGHWAY.-Any public, open highway. 3. Civil and criminal. - With reference to the subjects with which it deals, the common law is divided into civil and criminal. The former includes the two great branches of private rights arising out of contracts and torts (q. v.) The latter deals with crimes (q. v.) In addition to these subjects, the superior courts of common law had jurisdiction in other matters by means of the writs of habeas corpus, mandamus, and prohibition (q. v.) 4. Adoption of the common law. In the United States, the English common law has been adopted as the basis of ou COMMON INFORMER.--A person who prosecutes others for breaches of penal laws, or furnishes evidence on criminal trials, and receives as compensation the whole or a portion (usually a jurisprudence in all the States except moiety) of the amount of the penalty or fine recovered. See INFORMER. Louisiana. Many of its most valued principles have been embodied in the Unitea States constitution, and in those of the MON INTENT.-See INTENDMENT; INseveral States; and in many of them the 3. Joinder of issue is where one of the parties joins issue upon the previous pleading, or upon certain parts of it; that is to say, where the party whose turn it is to plead denies every material allegation 22. Joint ownership of choses in of fact in the previous pleading, or in a specified part of it, without alleging any action. In the case of bonds, covenants, contracts and other choses in action, when

COMMONa.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Belonging or relating equally, or similary, to more than one; as, you and I have a common interest in the property. Though life and sense be common to men and brutes. Sir M. Hale. Belonging to or shared by, affecting or serving, all the members of a class, consired together; general; public; as, propertis common to all plants; the common schools; the Book of Common Prayer. Such actions as the common good requereth. Hocker. The common enemy of man. Shak. Often met with; usual; frequent; customary. Grief more than common grief. Shak. Not distinguished or exceptional; inconspicuous; ordinary; plebeian; -- often in a depreciatory sense. The honest, heart-felt enjoyment of common life. W. Irving. This fact was infamous And ill beseeming any common man, Much more a knight, a captain and a leader. Shak. Above the vulgar flight of common souls. A. Murpphy. Profane; polluted. [Obs.] What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. Acts x. 15. Given to habits of lewdness; prostitute. A dame who herself was common. L'Estrange. Common bar (Law) Same as Blank bar, under Blank.  -- Common barrator (Law), one who makes a business of instigating litigation.  -- Common Bench, a name sometimes given to the English Court of Common Pleas.  -- Common brawler (Law), one addicted to public brawling and quarreling. See Brawler.  -- Common carrier (Law), one who undertakes the office of carrying (goods or persons) for hire. Such a carrier is bound to carry in all cases when he has accommodation, and when his fixed price is tendered, and he is liable for all losses and injuries to the goods, except those which happen in consequence of the act of God, or of the enemies of the country, or of the owner of the property himself.  -- Common chord (Mus.), a chord consisting of the fundamental tone, with its third and fifth.  -- Common council, the representative (legislative) body, or the lower branch of the representative body, of a city or other munisipal corporation.  -- Common crier, the crier of a town or city.  -- Common divisor (Math.), a number or quantity that divides two or more numbers or quantities without a remainder; a common measure.  -- Common gender (Gram.), the gender comprising words that may be of either the masculine or the feminine gender.  -- Common law, a system of jurisprudence developing under the guidance of the courts so as to apply a consistent and reasonable rule to each litigated case. It may be superseded by statute, but unless superseded it controls. Wharton.

COMMONn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

The people; the community. [Obs.] "The weal o' the common." Shak. An inclosed or uninclosed tract of ground for pleasure, for pasturage, etc., the use of which belongs to the public; or to a number of persons. 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. Common appendant, a right belonging to the owners or occupiers of arable land to put commonable beasts upon the waste land in the manor where they dwell.  -- Common appurtenant, a similar right applying to lands in other manors, or extending to other beasts, besides those which are generally commonable, as hogs.  -- Common because of vicinage or neighborhood, the right of the inhabitants of each of two townships, lying contiguous to each other, which have usually intercommoned with one another, to let their beasts stray into the other's fields.  -- Common in gross or at large, a common annexed to a man's person, being granted to him and his heirs by deed; or it may be claimed by prescriptive right, as by a parson of a church or other corporation sole. Blackstone.  -- Common of estovers, the right of taking wood from another's estate.  -- Common of pasture, the right of feeding beasts on the land of another. Burill.  -- Common of piscary, the right of fishing in waters belonging to another.  -- Common of turbary, the right of digging turf upon the ground of another.

COMMONv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To converse together; to discourse; to confer. [Obs.] Embassadors were sent upon both parts, and divers means of entreaty were commoned of. Grafton. To participate. [Obs.] Sir T. More. To have a joint right with others in common ground. Johnson. To board together; to eat at a table in common.

commonverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

To communicate (something). | To converse, talk. | To have sex. | To participate. | To have a joint right with others in common ground. | To board together; to eat at a table in common.

Commonname

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Denoting the name of a universal language in various works.

commonadj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Mutual; shared by more than one. | Of a quality: existing among virtually all people; universal. | Occurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual. | Found in large numbers or in a large quantity; usual. | Simple, ordinary or vulgar. | As part of the vernacular name of a species, usually denoting that it is abundant or widely known. | Vernacular, referring to the name of a kind of plant or animal. | Arising from use or tradition, as opposed to being created by a legislative body. | Of, pertaining or belonging to the common gender. | Of or pertaining to common nouns as opposed to proper nouns. | Profane; polluted. | Given to lewd habits; prostitute.

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