SEP 14, (re)duplication: hoi-polloi

  a) Reprise of material posted on September 14 in prior years ...

2020: Toronto ravines, Brickworks 1 (photo-collage)
2021: variant Nantucket limerick, Bay-Stater (illustrated poem) 
2022: Ontario nostalgia, native cactus (illustrated poem)
2023: cinematic guide, gainless, M*A*S*H (poem)

Tb) Today's Offering (Sep 14, 2024):

Authors' Note: 

The (re)duplication hoi polloi derives from the ancient Greek term for 'the many'. This expression, like its close cousin riff-raff (also a reduplication), has been used in class-conscious England for severlal centuries; similar expressions, tinged with disparagement include plebeian, and the great unwashed In a recent inexplicable twist, as described by speedysnail, hoi polloi has come to be used, in some circumstances, to mean the exact opposite.

Readers willing to go down an internet rabbit-hole can easily get to a collection of more than a dozen other  SHORT VERSES  in which we have dealt with specific reduplications. 

If interested you could also discover three fairly lengthy PATTER-SONGS about this fascinating linguistic phenomenon. These songs form an important part of our cycle of 9 songs about "Word Pairs".