hoi polloi [ HOY puh-LOY] -- n. pl -- commoners, great unwashed, minions, multitude, mob, plebeians, proletariat, rabble, rank and file, riffraff, the common people, the herd, the many, the masses, the plebs, the peons, the working class
The expression is most often used as a term of contempt describing the common people, the rabble. Example: "The rich ate caviar and drank champagne, but it was bread and water for us hoi polloi."
It Coms Right Out of the Greek. Hoi is the transliteration of the greek plural of "the" and polloi th the transliteration of "people" or "common people"
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