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==Etymology==
==Etymology==
''Communis'' comes from a combination of the Latin prefix ''com-'' (which means "together") and the word ''munis'' probably originally derived from the [[Etruscan]] word ''munis-'' (meaning "to have the charge of"). [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/4060/dictionnaire_etrusque.htm Etruscan Etymological Glossary]
''Communis'' comes from a combination of the Latin prefix ''com-'' (which means "together") and the word ''munis'' probably originally derived from the [[Etruscan]] word ''munis-'' (meaning "to have the charge of"). [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/4060/dictionnaire_etrusque.htm Etruscan Etymological Glossary]
[a. OF. com(m)uneté, com(m)unité:{em}L. comm{umac}nit{amac}t-em, f. comm{umac}n-is COMMON. ME. had two forms, the trisyllabic comunete, comounté (see COMMONTY), and the 4-syllabic co(m)munité, which remained in closer formal connexion with the original Latin type. The L. word was merely a noun of quality from comm{umac}nis, meaning ‘fellowship, community of relations or feelings’; but in med.L. it was, like universitas, used concretely in the sense of ‘a body of fellows or fellow-townsmen’, ‘universitas incolarum urbis vel oppidi,’ and this was its earlier use in English: see II.]
*I. As a quality or state.
:1. a. The quality of appertaining to or being held by all in common; joint or common ownership, tenure, liability, etc.; as in community of goods.
[[Image:Community_dateline.jpg|center]]
::b. Right of common. Obs.
:2. Common character; quality in common; commonness, agreement, identity. {dag}nothing of community: nothing in common. community of interest: identity of interest, interests in common (spec. in Finance).
:3. Social intercourse; fellowship, communion.
:4. Life in association with others; society, the social state.
:5. a. Commonness, ordinary occurrence. Obs.
::b. Common character, vulgarity. Obs.
*II. A body of individuals.
:6. The body of those having common or equal rights or rank, as distinguished from the privileged classes; the body of commons; the commonalty.
:7. A body of people organized into a political, municipal, or social unity: a. A state or commonwealth.
::b. A body of men living in the same locality.
::c. Often applied to those members of a civil community, who have certain circumstances of nativity, religion, or pursuit, common to them, but not shared by those among whom they live; as the British or Chinese community in a foreign city, the mercantile community everywhere, the Roman Catholic community in a Protestant city, etc., the Jewish community in London, familiarly known to its members as ‘The Community’.
::d. the community: the people of a country (or district) as a whole; the general body to which all alike belong, the public.
::e. A body of nations acknowledging unity of purpose or common interests. (Esp. in the titles of international organizations, as European Defence Community, European Economic Community.)
:8. spec. A body of persons living together, and practising, more or less, community of goods. a. A religious society, a monastic body.
::b. A socialistic or communistic society, such as those founded by Owen.
:9. transf. and fig. a. of gregarious animals. spec. in Ecology. A group of plants or animals growing or living together in natural conditions or inhabiting a specified area.
::b. of things: A cluster, a combination. Obs.
:10. A common prostitute. Obs.
:11. attrib., as community care, feeling, life, living, spirit, theatre; community centre (orig. U.S.), a building or an organization providing social, recreational, and educational facilities for a neighbourhood; community chest U.S., a fund made up of individual donations to meet the needs for charity and social welfare work in a community; community college (orig. U.S.) (see quot. 1959); community home, an institution for young offenders and children taken into the care of a local authority; cf. approved school s.v. APPROVED ppl. a. 5; community service order, a court order that a convicted offender perform a stipulated number of hours of unpaid work for the community or an individual; community singing, organized singing in chorus by large groups or gatherings of people; so community song, etc.
==Perspectives from various disciplines==
==Perspectives from various disciplines==
