The term vulgar originally meant "of the common people", from the Latin vulgus. The term is now commonly used to describe things that are, from the viewpoint of the person using the word, in bad taste, indecent, or profane.

In Medieval times, "vulgar" referred to texts written in a vernacular instead of the standard language of literature, science, and theology, Latin. During Late Antiquity "vulgar Latin" was used to refer to the vernacular dialects that sprang from Latin across the Roman Empire— the predecessors of the modern Romance languages. One of the earliest pieces of great European literature written in vulgar was Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

The major step in the liberation of academia from Latin was the Protestant Reformation which advocated giving Mass (liturgy) and reading from the Bible in vulgar languages. Following in the footsteps of the Reformation, some proponents of the scientific revolution began to establish the precedent for writing in vulgar.

See also

• Vulgar Latin
• Vulgate
• Vulgarism