Vulgar

This adjective derives from a 'neutral' Latin word - that is, one without any strong feeling or bias attached to it - meaning 'the people'. The word vulgar was originally used in English to mean 'of the people'.

• A 'vulgar language' is one of the local languages spoken by the inhabitants of a particular area or country, such as Italian, German or French, as opposed to such 'learned languages' as Latin and Greek. (Originally, it denoted the spoken language - Latin - of those Romans who were neither highly educated nor literary. See further Vulgar Latin.) One of the strong stimuli towards the Reformation in Europe was the desire to make the Bible accessible to all Christians: it was therefore translated out of the Latin of the Vulgate into the vulgar tongues, of French, German, English, Dutch and so on. Cf. vernacular.

Now, however, in British society, it has come to be used predominantly by the educated and literate élite as a term of disapproval; i.e., the word is used pejoratively. It is applied in matters of taste, often linked with the similar adjectives 'cheap' and 'nasty'. OED has as its meaning number 13: "Having a common and offensively mean character; coarsely commonplace; lacking in refinement or good taste; uncultured, ill-bred".