commune
/ˈkɒmjuːn/
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.
commune means 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. Lexicurio rates it Distinctive — a strength score of 57 out of 100.
Why this word is great
COMMUNE — [Noun, Verb] A noun denoting a small, intentional community sharing property and labor, or a local administrative division; as a verb, to share one’s deepest thoughts and feelings in profound sympathy. From Middle English commune, from Old French comune, commune, from Medieval Latin communia, from Latin commune (“community, state”), from communis (“common”). Unlike “community”—a broad, often passive association of locality—or “converse”—the brisk exchange of ideas—to commune implies a chosen dissolution of the personal into the collective, a shared respiration of spirit. It is the calloused hands working the same soil, the scent of bread from a single oven, and the silent understanding between friends watching the same fire—a fragile, beautiful triumph over the isolating grammar of the self.
noun
- 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
- 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 […]”