出典:Wiktionary
出典:『Wiktionary』 (2026/05/02 13:11 UTC 版)
From Latin plēbs (“the plebeian class”), variant of earlier plēbēs. Later also understood as the plural of pleb.
plebs pl (plural only)
Although the Latin plebs was usually declined as a singular group noun, English plebs is usually treated as grammatically plural in all its senses.
From Old Latin plēbēs and ultimately from the root *pleh₁- (“fill”), though the exact development of the term is unclear.
Cognate with Oscan 𐌐𐌋𐌝𐌚𐌓𐌉𐌊𐌔 (plífriks, “plebeian”, nom. sg.), perhaps derived from Proto-Italic *plēðros (adjective). It is also possibly related to Venetic 𐌐𐌋𐌄𐌃⸱𐌄⸱𐌉 (pled⸱e⸱i). See also Latin populus and the Greek-origin borrowing plēthōra.
plēbs f (genitive plēbis); third declension
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.
From Vulgar Latin *plēbānus:
Borrowings:
「plebs」は名詞「pleb」の複数形です