plēbs
From Old Latin plēbēs, from Proto-Italic *plēðwēs, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁dʰwḗh₁s ~ *pl̥h₁dʰuh₁és (whence Ancient Greek πληθῡ́ς(plēthū́s, “crowd”)), from the root *pleh₁- (“fill”), whence pleō. Cognate with Oscan 𐌐𐌋𐌝𐌚𐌓𐌉𐌊𐌔 (plífriks, “plebeian”, nom. sg.), perhaps derived from Proto-Italic *plēðros (adjective). See also Latin populus and the Greek-origin borrowing plēthōra.
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈpɫeːps]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈplɛbs]
plēbs f (genitive plēbis); third declension
- (uncountable) plebeians, plebs, common people
- (countable and uncountable) populace, population, stock
- (Late Latin, countable and uncountable, Christianity) laity, congregation, parish
Alongside plēbs, the older nominative singular form plēbēs f sg continued to be used with singular verb and adjective agreement in authors such as Cicero and Livy. In Livy, plēbēs is sometimes used instead as the subject of a plural verb; in such cases, it is ambiguous whether the noun itself is plural, or singular with the verb showing notional agreement (as sometimes seen with collective nouns such as populus). The first unambiguously plural form to be attested is accusative plēbēs, found in Columella and later in Apuleius. Plural genitive, dative, and ablative forms are not attested in Classical Latin, but can be found from Late Latin onwards.
Other old forms with continued use include a fifth-declension genitive singular plēbē̆ī or plēbī (versus third-declension plēbis) and a fifth-declension dative singular plēbē̆ī (versus plēbī). By the end of the first century BC, the use of fifth declension forms seems to have been an archaism.
The earliest attested use of the nominative singular form plēbs is found in a fragment attributed by Servius to the historian Cassius Hemina, who wrote in the second century BC; it is not found on inscriptions until Augustus.
Third-declension noun (i-stem or imparisyllabic non-i-stem).
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | plēbs | plēbēs |
| genitive | plēbis | plēbium
plēbum |
| dative | plēbī | plēbibus |
| accusative | plēbem | plēbēs
plēbīs |
| ablative | plēbe | plēbibus |
| vocative | plēbs | plēbēs |
The non-i-stem variant is found in Medieval Latin.