4 March 2015

plebs

[plebz]

noun, ( used with a plural verb)
1. (in ancient Rome) the common people, as contrasted with the patricians and later with the senatorial nobility or the equestrian order.
2. the common people; the populace.

Origin
Latin
1640-1650; < Latin plēbs, plēbēs

pleb

[pleb]

noun
1. a member of the plebs; a plebeian or commoner.
2. plebe (def 1).

Origin
1850-55, Americanism; short for plebeian

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for plebs
– Leave the viewing to us plebs without any social calendars.
– The answer is that they need someone to bring the populist plebs along for the neocon ride.

Today’s aphorism

Imagine what seven billion humans could achieve if we all loved and respected each other. Imagine.

– Anthony Douglas Williams

On this day

4 March – National Grammar Day.

4 March 1918 – first case of Spanish flu is identified when company cook, Albert Gitchell reports sick at Fort Riley, Kansas. The influenza pandemic infected 500 million people across the globe, killing an estimated 50 to 100 million people, or between 3% and 6% of the global population. The 1918 Spanish Flu killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS killed in 24 years. It killed more people in one year than the Bubonic Plague (Black Death), killed in a century. The flu affected the entire planet. It was named the Spanish flu after wartime censors in Germany, France, Britain and the US banned reporting of it in order to maintain morale. Spain was a neutral country during World War I, so the media was free to report the impact of the pandemic in that country, including the grave illness of Spanish King Alfonso XIII, giving rise to it being called the Spanish flu.

4 March 1987 – President Ronald Reagan admits that the U.S. negotiated the Iran-Contra deal, which swapped ‘military arms for hostages’ in order to secure the release of hostages from Iran.