groundling

[ ground-ling ]

noun

1. a plant or animal that lives on or close to the ground. ground.
2. any of various fishes that live at the bottom of the water.
3. a spectator, reader, or other person of unsophisticated or uncultivated tastes; an uncritical or uncultured person.
4. a member of a theater audience who sits in one of the cheaper seats.

groundling

/ ˈɡraʊndlɪŋ /

noun

1. any animal or plant that lives close to the ground or at the bottom of a lake, river, etc
2. 1. (in Elizabethan theatre) a spectator standing in the yard in front of the stage and paying least
   2. a spectator in the cheapest section of any theatre
3. a person on the ground as distinguished from one in an aircraft

Word History and Origins

Origin of groundling¹

First recorded in 1595–1605; ground ¹ + -ling ¹

Example Sentences

Through these seemingly frivolous details, Swen says, “they’re having kind of the experience of being an actual groundling in Shakespeare’s time.”

From Washington Post

Cellphones do not need to be switched to airplane mode, so you can chat up the groundlings below.

From Washington Post

The dynamic they create is convincingly contemporary, a tension that plays as compellingly in the digital age as it did in the days of the groundlings.

From Washington Post

The vision, following the model set by Shakespeare and the ancient Greeks, was to bring all strata of society together — groundlings, swells and everyone in between.

From Los Angeles Times

The groundlings, they love the body humor, they love the clowns, they love the love stories and the battles.

From Salon