Usage of "the common man"

[nessie]

Thanks a lot, Jamie and Inga. So that usage is very common? :O
Then could you please give me some more examples?

Thank you very much in advance
Nessie.

[MrPedantic]

Here are some examples:

1. The emphatic time of history is not the emphatic time of the common man, who throughout the change of nations feels an itch on his shin, a pain in his head, hunger, thirst, a lack of sleep... (Stephen Crane)

2. Except for the lightning conductor, it was 250 years before electricity stepped out of the cabinet of scientific curiosities into the life of the common man... (H.G. Wells)

3. Democracy is not founded on pity for the common man; democracy is founded on reverence for the common man... (G.K. Chesterton)

4. The virtues of the common man might perhaps signify vices and weaknesses in a philosopher. (From a translation of Nietzsche)

I don't know whether anyone else will agree; but it seems to me that while we can pluralise

5. The barn owl is an attractive bird.

to

6. Barn owls are attractive birds.

"common men" isn't an entirely satisfactory plural for "the common man"; and that instead, we have to resort to e.g. "ordinary people".

Best wishes,

MrP

[Yankee]

[Jamie (K)]

[nessie]

Thanks all,
I never know this usage is so popular. However I still have two more queries:
1. Which usage is more commonly used: "the common man" or "common men"?
2. Sorry for my dumbness, but so far I still don't get when we should use "the common man" and when "common men"

[Jamie (K)]

Nessie, it's all explained in the thread. Read it again and meditate over it. Either that or be patient, because more reading and more exposure to natural English will reveal how we use which one, and when.