vulgarity

Vulgarity is the quality of being common, coarse, or unrefined. This judgement may refer to language, visual art, social class, or social climbers. John Bayley said that the term can never be used self-referentially, because to be aware of vulgarity is to display a degree of sophistication which thereby elevates the subject above the vulgar.

==Evolution of the term== From the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, "vulgar" simply described the common language or vernacular of a country. From the mid-seventeenth century onward, it began to take on a pejorative aspect: "having a common and offensively mean character, coarsely commonplace; lacking in refinement or good taste; uncultured; ill bred".