💡On the true meaning of the word "Gemeinheit" 💡

"In 1981, Ivan Illich analyzed the difficulty that this word, »Gemeinheit«, along with its meaning, presents as follows: »Just as others speak of Minne to say something for which there is no longer a word, so I use the word Gemeinheit here. Gemein corresponds to the Latin comunis and stems from the Indo-European root *mei, »to trade, exchange«. Originally, *mei meant »what accrues to several in turn«, just like the Alm, the All-me(i)nde still does today. It means the claim of a municipality or community to its own way of using the environment. From this, the meaning »common, collective, general« developed. Until the early 17th century, the word Gemeinheit meant exclusively these rights of use and their subjects; only at the end of the century did it acquire a derogatory connotation: »unholy, ordinary, everyday, crude, vile«. What it originally meant is forgotten. The word has survived to our day only in this latter meaning. The change in meaning reflects the revaluation of existence. I cannot find any common German word with which I could designate the environment-related basis of the subsistence economy in such a way that the contrast with environmental use in the service of productivity becomes clear. In English, in such reflections, I can contrast the commons with public utilities. I do not want to force the German word Allmende into my service for this. Although it means a kind of Gemeinheit, it refers too much to the rural form of use, to forest and meadow. To speak of the right to the Allmende when I am actually concerned with the reclamation of rights of use to polluted, sprawled, administered relics of Gemeinheiten would be too narrow.«"

From the book "The World of the Commons - Patterns of Common Action"

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