mid-14c., "the people collectively," especially "the common people as distinguished from the rulers and nobility and the clergy; the freemen of England as represented in Parliament" (late 14c.), from common (n.). Meaning "the lower house of Parliament, consisting of commoners chosen by the people as their representatives" is from early 15c. House of Commons is from 1620s. Meaning "provisions for a community or company" is from mid-14c.

c. 1300, "a fellowship or brotherhood; early 14c., "people of a community or town, freemen, citizenry;" late 15c., "land held in common," from Old French commune and Medieval Latin communia, and partly from common (adj.). Also compare commons. Latin communis "common, general" (adj.) also served as a noun meaning "common property; state, commonwealth."

late 14c. (mid-14c. in Anglo-French), "one of the common people, a member of the third estate," agent noun from common (v.) "participate in common, associate or have dealings with" (mid-14c.), from common (adj.). From mid-15c. as "member of the House of Commons."

"explosive powder for the discharge of projectiles from guns," early 15c., from gun (n.) + powder (n.). The Gunpowder Plot (or treason or conspiracy) was a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605, while the King, Lords and Commons were assembled there in revenge for the laws against Catholics (see guy (n.2)).

1630s, "member of a legislative body (such as the British House of Commons or the U.S. House of Representatives) who represents a number of others," from representative (adj.). By 1640s in the sense of "example, type, sample, specimen."

1726, from in- (1) "not, opposite of" + describable. Related: Indescribably; indescribability (1797). In same sense, Old English had unasecgendlic. Indescribables for "trousers" (1819) was colloquial in England for a generation or so.

We cannot omit here to state, that, some years since, we recollect a rumour in the gallery [of the House of Commons], that Madame de Staël was sitting, en habit d'homme, in a surtout and military indescribables, listening to the debate, under the protection of Sir J. Macintosh. ["Privileges of Women," in Retrospective Review, London, 1824]

See inexpressible.

1965, apparently coined by U.K. politician Iain Macleod (1913-1970), from stag(nation) + (in)flation.

Attacking the Government's economic policy last night in the House of Commons, Mr. Iain Macleod (West Enfield - Con.) the Opposition spokesman on Treasury and economic affairs, described the present situation in Britain as "stagflation" — stagnation and inflation together. [Glasgow Herald, Nov. 18, 1965]

early 13c., "rank, standing, condition," from Anglo-French astat, Old French estat "state, position, condition, health, status, legal estate" (13c., Modern French état), from Latin status "state or condition, position, place; social position of the aristocracy," from PIE root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm."

For the unetymological e-, see e-. Sense of "property" is late 14c., from that of "worldly prosperity;" specific application to "landed property" (usually of large extent) is first recorded in American English 1620s. A native word for this was Middle English ethel (Old English æðel) "ancestral land or estate, patrimony." Meaning "collective assets of a dead person or debtor" is from 1830.

The three estates (in Sweden and Aragon, four) conceived as orders in the body politic date from late 14c. In France, they are the clergy, nobles, and townsmen; in England, originally the clergy, barons, and commons, later Lords Spiritual, Lords Temporal, and commons. For Fourth Estate see four.

1550s, "cloister, covered walk," from Medieval Latin laubia, lobia "covered walk in a monastery," from a Germanic source (compare Old High German louba "hall, roof;" see lodge (n.)).

Meaning "large entrance hall in a public building" is from 1590s; in reference to the House of Commons from 1630s. Political sense of "those who seek to influence legislation" is attested by 1790s in American English, in reference to the custom of influence-seekers gathering in the large entrance-halls outside legislative chambers.

1871, the French word for "closure, the action of closing," applied to debates in the French Assembly ("action of closing (debate) by will of a majority"), then to the House of Commons and U.S. Congress, from French clôture, from Old French closture (see closure). It was especially used in English by those opposed to the tactic.

In foreign countries the Clôture has been used notoriously to barricade up a majority against the "pestilent" criticism of a minority, and in this country every "whip" and force is employed by the majority to re-assert its continued supremacy and to keep its ranks intact whenever attacked. How this one-sided struggle to maintain solidarity can be construed into "good for all" is inexplicable in the sense uttered. ["The clôture and the Recent Debate, a Letter to Sir J. Lubbock," London, 1882]