hoi pol·loi (hoi p -loi )n. The common people; the masses. [Greek, the many : hoi, nominative pl. of ho, the; see so- in Indo-European roots + polloi, nominative pl. of polus, many; see pel -1 in Indo-European roots.]Usage Note: Hoi polloi is a borrowing of the Greek phrase hoi polloi, consisting of hoi, meaning "the" and used before a plural, and polloi, the plural of polus, "many." In Greek hoi polloi had a special sense, "the greater number, the people, the commonalty, the masses." This phrase has generally expressed this meaning in English since its first recorded instance, in an 1837 work by James Fenimore Cooper. Hoi polloi is sometimes incorrectly used to mean "the elite," possibly because it is reminiscent of high and mighty or because it sounds like hoity-toity. · Since the Greek phrase includes an article, some critics have argued that the phrase the hoi polloi is redundant. But phrases borrowed from other languages are often reanalyzed in English as single words. For example, a number of Arabic noun phrases were borrowed into English as simple nouns. The Arabic element al- means "the," and appears in English nouns such as alcohol and alchemy. Thus, since no one would consider a phrase such as "the alcohol" to be redundant, criticizing the hoi polloi on similar grounds seems pedantic. |
hoi polloi [ˌhɔɪ pəˈlɔɪ]
pl n
Often derogatory the masses; common people
[Greek, literally: the many]
Hoi Polloi the masses; the common people. See also commonalty.
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
| Noun | 1. |  hoi polloi - the common people generally; "separate the warriors from the mass"; "power to the people"laity, temporalty - in Christianity, members of a religious community that do not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy audience - the part of the general public interested in a source of information or entertainment; "every artist needs an audience"; "the broadcast reached an audience of millions" |
hoi polloi
noun the common people, the masses, the (common) herd, the underclass, the populace, the proletariat, the lower orders, the rabble, the great unwashed (informal & derogatory), the plebs, the third estate, riffraff, the proles (derogatory slang, chiefly Brit.), canaille (French), commonalty Inflated costs are designed to keep the hoi polloi at bay.
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