commoner

Etymology 1

common + -er (comparative suffix)

adj

1. comparative form of common: more common

Etymology 2

From Middle English comoner, comyner, cumuner, equivalent to common + -er.

noun

1. A member of the common people who holds no title or rank.
2. (Britain) Someone who is not of noble rank.
3. (obsolete, UK, Oxford University) A student who is not dependent on any foundation for support, but pays all university charges; at Cambridge called a pensioner.
   There are to this day fellow-commoners at Queens, and surely such a distinguished commoner as Fuller would have been allowed to remain on that foundation, in which he had spent seven years, in this new capacity. The expense would have been about the same, and the only way in which I can account for his migration is either pique at being passed over, or the friendship of so famed a theologian as Dr. Ward. 1886, Rev. Morris Joseph Fuller, “College Days (Sydney-Sussex). 1629-1631”, in The Life, Times and Writings of Thomas Fuller, D.D., 2nd edition, volume 1, London: S. Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey, pages 68–69
4. Someone who has a right over another's land. They hold common rights because of residence or land ownership in a particular manor, especially rights on common land. eg: centuries-old grazing rights
5. (obsolete) One sharing with another in anything.
   From the Counsell he was carried home to the Prison, and there for many days kept with bread and water, so that had the proudest Anchorite, pretending to the highest abstinence, been Commoner with him, it would have tried his swiftest Devotion to keepe pace with him. 1651, Thomas Fuller, Abel Redevivus; republished as chapter 1, in The Life, Times and Writings of Thomas Fuller, D.D., volume 2, London: S. Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey, 1886, page 20
6. (obsolete) A prostitute.
   O behold this ring / Whose high respect and rich validity / Did lack a parallel; yet for all that / He gave it to a commoner o'th' camp, / If I be one. c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, act 5, scene 3, lines 191–195