commonalty

Etymology

From Middle English communalte, comonalte, from Old French comunalté, comunauté (modern communauté), probably from an alteration of communité, from Latin commūnitās.

noun

1. The common people; the commonality.
   1906, Sinclair Lewis, "Unknown Undergraduates" first published in the Yale Literary Magazine, June, 1906, in The Man from Main Street: Selected Essays and Other Writings, 1904-1950, Harry E. Maule and Melville H. Cane (eds.), New York: Pocket Books, 1962, p. 122, Besides the men who are unknown but important there is the commonalty, whom you regard as mere entities, whose very names you do not know, or will forget before your triennial.
2. A group of things having similar characteristics.
3. A class composed of persons lacking clerical or noble rank; commoners.
   The commonalty spoke of his mighty spear-thrust, of his deft sword-swing, the terror of his wrath, of the fury of his battle-lust, of his laughter and light joy, and the singing that was on his lips when his sword had the silence upon it. 1910, Fiona Macleod, “The Harping of Cravetheen”, in The Sin-Eater, The Washer of the Ford and Other Legendary Moralities, New York: Duffield & Co., pages 91–2
4. The state or quality of having things in common.
   Or is there some way in which the product of that solitude—writing—may none the less be profoundly social, rejoining the commonalty of society, and through its indirections and specificities being the most authentic contribution the writer can offer? 1988, Nadine Gordimer, The Essential Gesture: Writing, Politics and Places, New York: Knopf, page 8
   Some individuals fight the expectation that they ought to be part of any such "we," while others eagerly seek a sense of commonalty. 2000, Stephen O. Murray, Homosexualities, University of Chicago Press, Part 3, Chapter 9, p. 382
5. A shared feature.
   Observant visitors to any prison will quickly recognize commonalties in its inmate population. Not only do shared traits exist among the inmate population of any particular institution (intra-prison commonalties) but commonalties also exist among inmates nationwide (inter-prison commonalties). 2007, Curt R. Blakely, chapter 2, in Prisons, Penology and Penal Reform: An Introduction to Institutional Specialization, New York: Peter Lang, page 29