- commune (v.)
- c.1300, from O.Fr. comuner "to make common, share," from comun (see common).
- commune (n.)
- 1792, from Fr., "small territorial divisions set up after the Revolution," from M.Fr. commune "free city, group of citizens," from M.L. communia, orig. neut. pl. of L. communis, lit. "that which is common," from communis (see common). The Commune of Paris usurped the government during the Reign of Terror. The word was later applied to a government on communalistic principles set up in Paris in 1871. Adherents of the 1871 government were Communards.