great unwashed en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˌɡɹeɪt ʌnˈwɔːʃt/ (US)
- /ˌɡɹeɪt ʌnˈwɒʃt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˌɡɹeɪt ʌnˈwɑːʃt/ (US)
- (US) audio
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
Though attributed by many to Edmund Burke, the first published use of the phrase was by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in a dedicatory epistle for 1830, Paul Clifford.
Meanings
-
(derogatory, idiomatic, plural, plural-only) The general populace, particularly the working class.
[T]he gentlemen of the inns of court, and the gentlemen of the universities… live in abodes which were erected long before the custom of cleanliness and decency obtained among us. … Gentlemen, there can be but little doubt that your ancestors were the Great Unwashed: and in the Temple especially, it is pretty certain, that only under the greatest difficulties and restrictions the virtue which has been pronounced to be next to godliness could have been practised at all.
1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 30, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:The Liberal campaign was so carefully orchestrated that McLeod was never in a position to be confronted by the great unwashed. Unfortunately, the great unwashed rarely vote for a leader whom they have never met.
1995, Christina Blizzard, Right Turn: How the Tories Took Ontario:
Synonyms
many · unwashed masses · commonalty · riffraff · third estate · great unhosed · everyone · trash · canaille · proletariat · herd · rank and file · hoi polloi · great unwashed · mob · working class · multitude · lower class · rabble · peasantry · great unhosed · crowd · commonage · plebs · unwashed · commonality · unwashed masses · odds and sods · masses · demos · hoi polloi · populace · general public
Translations (6)
fr vulgum pecus (a contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class) · sv kreti och pleti (a contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class) · ro vulg (a contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class) · pl buractwo (a contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class) · pl tłuszcza (a contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class) · ro prostime (a contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class)