commune
noun
- administrative entity in different countries
- community of people living together, sharing common interests
verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L30741 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈkɒmjuːn/ / /ˈkɑmjuːn/ / /kəˈmjuːn/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English commune, comune, from Old French comune, commune, from Medieval Latin commūnia, from Latin commūne (“community, state”), from commūnis (“common”). Doublet of comune. See also community, communion, common.
- A small community, often rural, whose members share in the ownership of property, and in the division of labour; the members of such a community.
“The town of Chu-chou in Hunan Province, carrying out the great directive of Chairman Mao that "educated youths must go to the villages," has put into practice factory-commune links, and under the leadership of cadres, has made a collective settlement of educated youths in commune and brigade farms, forest areas, and tea plantations.”
- A local political division in many European countries as well as their former colonies (such as Chile and Vietnam).
- The commonalty; the common people.
- Communion; sympathetic conversation between friends.
“For days of happy commune dead.”
- A self-governing city or league of citizens.
“In 1117 the commune and archbishop had separate consuls at Milan.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English communen, comunen, from Old French comuner (formed from comun (“common”)) and comunier (“to share”) (from Latin commūnico). Doublet of communicate.
- To converse together with sympathy and confidence; to interchange sentiments or feelings; to take counsel.
“I would commune with you of such things / That want no ear but yours.”
- To communicate (with) spiritually; to be together (with); to contemplate or absorb.
“He spent a week in the backcountry, communing with nature.”
- To receive the communion.
“Namely, in these things, in prohibiting that none should commune alone, in making the People whole Communers, or in suffering them to Commune under both kinds […]”