Commonality
I think that this is a very difficult question to answer. One’s perception of any object, concept, or by extension, a word, is now seen through several filters that have taken decades to build up. There are an innumerable amount of factors that are automagically taken into consideration by our minds.

I have a pencil in front of me on my desk. It has the name of the company that made it printed on the side. It also had an eraser on the end of it.

Now to me, I find this ‘common’. This is because when I was in school, Stuart Jones, who smelt of bread and wore thick black plastic NHS specs which had been partially repaired by duct tape, had one. I remember this because I have a distinct memory of his habit of pushing up his glasses with the eraser end during classes. I also remember that the cool kids used to tease him because of this. I have no idea why; as I was too busy trying to chat up the girls who sat at the back, but I was aware of it.

So Stuart Jones was ‘the poor kid’ of the class and the general perception was Stuart’s parents probably weren’t as well off as other people’s parents in the class, but that had nothing to do with the fact that he had a cheap pencil with a rubber on the end as half the class probably did including me. It was merely an invitation to tease by the cool kids.

But then and now, in my mind, I uncontrollably associate Stuart with that style of pencil and being ‘common’, however irrational it may be. In a way, Stuart is represented in my mind by that pencil and nothing else. I have gone ten years without thinking about him, and only now when I sit here to write this has he sprung up, only because I have this pencil in front of me.

So Stuart only exists in my mind as a pencil. I am sure that he has his own life, and has done worthy things with it. To me, he is a pencil.

Does such a thing as being ‘common’ exist, or is it a concept invented by us as a way to process vestigial memories?
(powervator and NONE SHALL PASS, Fri 17 Oct 2008, 11:10, 1 reply)

I think this is only part of it
You describe quite clearly how memories and associations shape the way we think and perceive our world around us. However, a specific term, such as 'common' probably brings to mind any associations with 'people we think are less sophisticated than us'.
'Following the crowd' is my main reason for thinking someone is common, be it wearing the same clothes (such as chav Burberry), writing the same non-standard way (text speak) or just talking like you hear others.
Individuality is by definition not common, and it seems that speaking properly, having morals and not lowering your IQ are all traits becomming less common all the time.
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Fri 17 Oct 2008, 12:25, closed)