n. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage (Webster's College Dictionary, 2010)
History:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word community first appeared in writing in the epic poem The Bruce by the 14th-century Scottish poet John Barbour. In that epic, Barbour used the word to mean "the body of those having common or equal rights or rank, as distinguished from the privileged classes." By the late 18th century, the growing number of meanings for this essential word included "joint or common ownership." Subsequent to the...
is a retired secondary teacher of English and philosophy. For forty years he challenged students to dive deep into the classics of the Western canon, to think and write analytically, and to find the cultural constants reflected throughout that literature, art, and thought.
Get Salvo in your inbox! This article originally appeared in Salvo, Issue #58, Fall 2021 Copyright © 2024 Salvo | www.salvomag.com https://salvomag.com/article/salvo58/the-meaning-of-community
