Mob

Mob

Noun / Verb · /mɒb/

Definition

(Noun) a large, disorderly, or violent crowd; the common people, the masses (sometimes contemptuous); informal, a group of people (friendly or otherwise); in zoology, a group of kangaroos; (Verb) to crowd around someone in a disorderly or excited way.

Origin

From mobile vulgus (Latin: the fickle common people, literally the moving common people — mobile from movere, to move; vulgus, the common people, related to vulgar). The full phrase was shortened first to mobile in the 17th century in English and then to mob around 1690. The shortening being criticised by Jonathan Swift and other prescriptivists as a vulgar clipping, though it became established. Mobile vulgus captures the classical anxiety about crowd behaviour — the crowd being defined by its movement (unpredictability, volatility) and its common-person composition.