populace 
The populace hooted and shouted all day before the 
gates of tin: royal residence. 
Macaulay, Nugent's Hampden. 
= Syn. Populace, Mob, Rabble, crowd, masses. Populace 
Is used to represent the lower classes, the body of those 
without wealth, education, or recognized position ; it is 
however, much less opprobrious than mult or rabble. Hub 
is a ycry strong word for a tumultuous or even riotous as- 
sembly, moved to or toward lawlessness by discontent or 
some similar exciting cause, nobble is a contemptuous 
word for the very lowest classes, considered as confused 
or without sufficient strength or unity of feeling to make 
them especially dangerous. 
That vast portion, lastly, of the working class which, raw 
and half-developed, has long lain half-hidden amidst its 
poverty and squalor, and is now issuing from its hiding- 
place to assert an Englishman's heaven-born privilege of 
doing as he likes, and is beginning to perplex us by march- 
ing when it likes, meeting where it likes, bawling what it 
likes, breaking what it likes to this vast residuum we 
may with great propriety give the name of Populace, 
M. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy, 111. 
A mob is at first an irregular, then a regular army ; but 
in every stage of its progress the mere blind Instrument 
of its leaders. Ames, Works, II. 228. 
Follow'd with a rabble that rejoice 
To see my tears and hear my deep-fet groans. 
Shale., 2 Hen. VI., ii. 4. 32. 
populacyt (pop'u-la-si), n. [< populace, irreg. 
conformed to nouns in -acy.~] The populace or 
common people ; the rabble. Decay of Christian 
Piety. 
popular (pop'u-lar), . [= Tt.populair = G. po- 
pular, popular = Sw . jyopuldr = Dun. pop it leer, 
< F . populaire = Sp. Pg.}>opular = It.popularc, 
popolare, < L. popularis, of the people, belong- 
ing to the people, of the same people or country 
(as a noun, a fellow-countryman), agreeable to 
the people, popular, attached or devoted to 
the people, democratic, etc., < populns, the peo- 
ple: see people ] 1. Of or pertaining to the 
people; constituted by or depending on the 
people, especially the common people: as, the 
popular voice ; popular elections ; popular gov- 
ernment. 
Antinous, by my shame observe 
What a close witchcraft popular applause is. 
Beau, and Fl., Laws of Candy, v. 1. 
2. Suitable to or intended for common people ; 
easy to be comprehended ; not technical or ab- 
struse; plain; familiar: as, a popular treatise 
on astronomy. 
Homilies are plain and papular instructions. 
Honker, Eccles. Polity. 
"Piers Ploughman " is the best example I know of what 
is called popidar poetry of compositions, that is, which 
contain all the simpler elementsof poetry, but still in solu- 
tion, not crystallized around any thread of artistic purpose. 
Lowell, Study Windows, p. 203. 
3. Enjoying the favor of the people; pleasing 
to people in general: as, a popular preacher; 
a popular war or peace. 
In their sermons they were apt to enlarge on the state 
of the present time, and to preach against the sins of princes 
aud courts, a topic that naturally makes men popular. 
Up. Burnet. 
All author may make himself very popular, however, 
and even Justly so, by appealing to the passion of the mo- 
ment, without having anything in him that shall outlast 
the public whim which he satisfies. 
Lmeell, Study Windows, p. 117. 
4f. Desirous of obtaining the favor of the peo- 
ple; courting the vulgar; of demagogic pro- 
clivities. 
Divers were of opinion that he [Cams Gracchus) was 
more popular and desirous of the common people's good 
will and favour then his brother had been before him. 
But indeed he was clean contrary. 
North, tr. of Plutarch, p. 690. (Trench.) 
5. Prevailing among the people; epidemic. 
Johnson. [Rare.] 
The world 's a popular disease, that reigns 
Within the froward heart and frantic brains 
Of poor disteutper'd mortals. 
'.'""/(..-. Emblems, L 8. 
6f. Plebeian; vulgar. 
Discuss unto me ; art thou officer* 
Or art thou base, common, and popular? 
Shale., Hen. V., iv. 1. 38. 
7. Conceited. [Vulgar, U. S.] 
Popular: conceited. . . . "Pop'lar as a hen with one 
chicken." Lowell, Biglow Papers, 2d ser., Int. 
Popular action, in law. an action for a penalty given by 
statute to the person who sues for the same. Popular 
sovereignty, in U. S. hint., the theory that the right to 
decide whether slavery should exist in a territory rested 
with the people of that territory, and not with Congress. 
It was advocated especially by Democrats during the 
period 1847-61, and its leading champion was Douglas. 
It was often termed "squatter sovereignty," with which 
it was nearly identical. = Syn. 3. Favorite, current, pre- 
vailing. 
popularisation, popularise, etc. See popuhn-i- 
ZtttilHt, Ptt*. 
popularity (pop-u-lar'i-ti), H. [= F. popularitc 
= Sp. pomuantlad = Pg. poptilaridude = It. 
popolarita = D, poptilariteit = Sw. Dan. popu- 
4623 
t, < L. popularita(t-)s, a being of the same 
country, also a courting of popular favor, 
popular bearing, < populuris, of the people : see 
popular.] 1. Popular character or quality; 
favor in the eyes of the people ; acceptance or 
acceptability among the people; the fact of be- 
ing favored by or of having the approbation of 
the people: as, the popularity ot a measure; 
the popularity of a public officer ; the populari- 
ty of a book or of a preacher. 
The best temper of minds desireth good name and true 
honour; the lighter, popularity and applause; the more 
depraved, subjection and tyranny. Bacon. 
2f. That which catches public favor; anything 
suited to the vulgar fancy; a piece of claptrap. 
Popularities , . . which sway the ordinary judgement. 
Bacon. 
3f. A desire to obtain favor with the people; a 
currying of favor with the people. 
Harold, lifted up in mind, and forgetting now his former 
shows of popularity, defrauded his soldiers their due and 
well-desei ved share of the spoils. MUton, Hist. Eng., vi. 
4f. Vulgarity; commonness. 
This gallant, labouring to avoid popularity, falls Into a 
habit of affectation ten thousand times hatefuler than the 
former. B. Jonaon. 
popularization (pop'u-lar-i-za'shon), H. [= 
F. popularisation; <. popularize + -ation.~\ The 
act of making popular; adaptation to popular 
needs or capacities: as, the popularization of 
science. Also spelled popularisation. 
popularize (pop u-lar-iz), r. t. ; pret. and pp. 
popularized, ppr. populuri:i<j. [= F. popu- 
laristr = Sp. ponularizur = Pg. popularisar; as 
popular + -i>e.J To make popular; treat in a 
popular manner, or so as to be generally intel- 
ligible to common people; spread among the 
people. Also spelled popularise. 
The populaririny of religious teaching. ililman. 
popularize! (pop'u-ljir-i-zer), n. One who pop- 
ularizes, or treats scientific or abstruse subjects 
in a popular manner. Also spelled populariser. 
Atlientriim. 
popularly (pop'u-ljir-li), adv. 1. In a popular 
manner; so as to please the populace. 
Why then should I, encouraging the bad, 
Turn rebel and run popularly mad? 
bryden. Aba, and Achit., i. 336. 
2. Among the people at large ; currently ; com- 
monly; prevalently. 
popularness (pop'u-ljir-nes), n. The state of 
being popular; popularity. 
Meretricious popularness in literature. Coleridye. 
populate ( pop' u-lat),r.; f ret. Kudfp. populated, 
ppr. populating. [< ML. populatus, pp. of po- 
pulnre (> It. }>fipol<tre), people, populate, < L. 
populus, people: see people, n., and cf. people, 
r. Cf. L. 2>"pulari, papitlare, devastate, lay 
waste: see depopulate.'] I. traus. To furnish 
with inhabitants, either by natural increase or 
by immigration or colonization ; people. 
II. iiitrans. To breed; propagate; increase 
in number. 
Great shoals of people which go on to populate. 
Bacon, Vicissitudes of Things. 
populate (pop'u-lat), a. [= It.popolato, popu- 
lato; < ML. populatus, pp. of populare, popu- 
late : see populate, v.] Populated ; populous. 
The countrie of Caldea, the situation whereof is vnder 
the fourth Climate, the Region after the floud first inhab- 
ited and populate. 
Guevara, Letters <tr. by 11 ell owes, 1577), p. 376. 
Aprince . . . in the primeof his years, ownerof the en- 
tire isle of Britain, enjoying Ireland populate and quiet 
Bacon, Notes of a Speech ou Spain. 
population (pop-u-la'shon), w. [= F. popula- 
tion = Sp. populacion, poblacion = Pg. jH>pnla- 
cao = 1 1. popolazione, < ML. popula tio( -), popu- 
lation (LL. a people, multitude), < populare, pp. 
populatus, people: see populate.] 1. The act 
or process of populating or peopling: as, the 
rapid population of the country still continues. 
The first radical impact of the principle of population, 
working in harmony with the repellent forces of savagery, 
tends to the speediest possible diffusion of population 
throughout the most accessible parts of the habitable 
world. Amer. Anthropoloyut, 1. 17. 
2. The whole number of people or inhabitants 
in a country, county, city, or other locality: 
as, the population has increased 20,000 in four 
years; also, a part of the inhabitants in any 
way distinguished from the rest : as, the Ger- 
man population of New York. 
A country may have a great population and yet not be 
populous. Toolre. 
In countries of the highest civilization which has yet 
been reached, armed with the resources of the best gov- 
ernment, purest justice, truest morality, soundest ccon- 
Populus 
onty, and most fruitful science attained by men, we find 
the greatest density of population, because the limits of 
ptipultitwn revolve more and more within the sphere of 
man's material, mental, and moral freedom. 
Amer. Anthropoloyut, I. 11. 
3. The state of a locality with regard to the 
number of its inhabitants; populousness. 
Neltherls the population to be reckoned only by number, 
for a smaller number, that spend more and cam leas, do 
wear out an estate sooner than a greater number that live 
low and gather more. Lacun, Seditious and Troubles. 
populator (pop'u-la-tor). H. [= \i.popolatore, 
< ML. populator, one who peoples, (. poimlare, 
pp. populatus: see people and populate. \ One 
who or that which populates or peoples. 
pppulicide (pop'u-h-sid), M. [=F. populicide; 
< L. vopulmt, people, + cxdere, kill.] Slaugh- 
terer the people. Eclectic Rev. [Bare.] (Imp. 
Diet.) 
populin (pop'u-lin), n. [= F. popitliue; < L. 
populus, poplar, + -n 2 .] A crystallizable sub- 
stance ( < '._,,,! I ._,._,n s i found in the bark, root, and 
leaves ofthe aspen, I'opidug Treniula, along 
with salicin. It forms delicate white needles, 
which have a sweet taste like that of licorice. 
populinate (pop'u-lin-at), v. t. [< populin 4 
-ate 2 .] To impregnate with populin, as lard, 
to prevent a tendency to rancidity. U. S. Dis- 
pensatory, p. 1489. 
populosityt (pop-u-los'i-ti), n. [= F. populo- 
site, < LL. populosita(t-)s, < L. populosus, popu- 
lous: see pojmlous.'] Populousness. 
The length of men's lives conduced unto the popularity 
of their kind. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., vi. 6. 
populous (pop'u-lus), . [< F. populeux = Sp. 
Pg. populoso = It. populoso. pupoloso, < L. poj>u- 
losus, full of people, populous, < populus, peo- 
ple: see iteo^lc.] 1. Full of people; contain- 
ing many inhabitants in proportion to the ex- 
tent of the country. 
You will limit' it a populous U)wne, and well inhabited. 
Conjat, Crudities, I. 9. 
They passed not farrc frome an other Ilande which the 
captyues snyde to bee vetye peoputtmg, and replenyshed 
with all tbynges ncccssaric for the life of man. 
Peter Martyr (tr. In Eden's First Books on America, ed. 
(Arber, p. 69). 
I was in the midst of a populous but unknown city. 
Barhinn, Ingoldsby Legends, I. I'.il. 
2f. Numerous; multitudinous. 
Yt was shewed hym that Kynge Kycharde was at hande 
wyth a stronge powre and I populous armye. 
Hall, Rich. III., fol. 29, a., quoted In Wright's Bible 
(Wordbook. 
The dust 
Should have ascended to the roof of heaven, 
liaised by your populous troops. 
Shalt, A. andC., III. 6. 50. 
3t. Pleasing or acceptable to the people; pop- 
ular. 
He I plead for 
Has power to make your Iwauty populous. 
Webtter, Appius and Vitglnia, ii. 1. 
4t. Suited to the populace; coarse; vulgar. 
It should have l>een some fine confection. 
That might have given the broth some dainty taste; 
This powder was too gross and pop'ilous. 
A raett o/ Feoenham, I. 3. 
populously (ix>p'u-!us-li), adv. In a populous 
manner; with many inhabitants in proportion 
to the extent of the country. 
populousness (pop'u-lus-nes), n. The state of 
being populous, or of having many inhabitants 
in proportion to extent of territory. 
To prove, therefore, or account for that superior popu> 
lousnes* of antiquity which is commonly supposed by the 
imaginary youth or vigour of the woifd will scarcely be 
admitted by any just reasouer. Hume, Essays, ii. 11. 
Populus (pop'u-lus), H. [NL. (Tournefort, 1700), 
< L. populus, poplar: see popple?, pojilar."] A 
genus of dicotyledonous trees of the order Sali- 
cinete, including the poplar and aspen, having 
dicecious flowers in catkins without floral en- 
velops, and distinguished from Salix, the willow, 
by tne numerous ovules, obliquely lengthened 
and cup-shaped disks, broad and toothed bracts, 
loosely flowered and generally pendulous cat- 
kins, and broad leaves. The 18 species are all natives 
of the northern hemisphere. They are treea with angled 
or sometimes cylindrical branches, scaly resinous bods 
coated externally with varnish before opening, and catkins 
appearing before the leaves, which are alternate and sleu- 
der-petloled, feather-veined and three-nerved, sometimes 
entire and triangular, often toothed or lobed. Most spe- 
cies present a very characteristic appearance when in flow- 
er, from the long drooping catkins and their red anthers 
and white-fringed scales. The fertile catkins discharge 
Innumerable seeds, each enveloped in white cottony down, 
which fill the air almut the trees in May, and collect in 
small drifts like snow ; hence the name cottatnrood, which 
is in use tor several American species. /'. Tmnttla of Eu- 
rope and P. trtinuloideg of America, the aspens, are re- 
MKirkalile for the tremulous motion of their leaves, due to 
the vertical flattening uf their leafstalks (sec cut under 
