vulgarian

From vulgar +‎ -ian. Compare Late Latin vulgārius, Latin vulgāris.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /vʌlˈɡɛəɹi.ən/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /vʌlˈɡɛəɹi.ən/
• Rhymes: -æɹiən

vulgarian (plural vulgarians)

1. A vulgar individual, especially one who emphasizes or is oblivious to his or her vulgar qualities.
   • 1894, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Ebb-Tide‎^[1]:

     He was by this time on the deck, but he had the art to be quite unapproachable; the friendliest vulgarian, three parts drunk, would have known better than take liberties...

   • 1907, William James, Social Value of the College-Bred‎^[2]:

     But to have spent one's youth at college, in contact with the choice and rare and precious, and yet still to be a blind prig or vulgarian, unable to scent out human excellence or to divine it amid its accidents, to know it only when ticketed and labeled and forced on us by others, this indeed should be accounted the very calamity and shipwreck of a higher education.

   • 1976 April 26, Rob Schmeider, “Entertaining Mr. Sloane (review)”, in Gay Community News, page 21:

     She is a bitch in heat, a mindless grinning vulgarian, and a shrewd and desperate schemer all at once.

   • 2014 December 4, Timothy Egan, “A deficit of dignity”, in The New York Times‎^[3]:

     Leading the attack on the president's very citizenship is the professional vulgarian Donald Trump, who gets away with the kind of preposterous, race-based comments granted few black public figures.

vulgarian (comparative more vulgarian, superlative most vulgarian)

1. Having the characteristics of a vulgarian, vulgar.
   • 1986, Tim Kazurinsky, Denise DeClue, About Last Night, spoken by Joan (Elizabeth Perkins):

     Your vulgarian friend is downstairs, denting innocent people's fenders.