regarded with favor, approval, or affection by people in general: a popular preacher.
regarded with favor, approval, or affection by an acquaintance or acquaintances: He's not very popular with me just now.
of, relating to, or representing the people, especially the common people: popular discontent.
of the people as a whole, especially of all citizens of a nation or state qualified to participate in an election: popular suffrage; the popular vote; popular representation.
prevailing among the people generally: a popular superstition.
suited to or intended for the general masses of people: popular music.
adapted to the ordinary intelligence or taste: popular lectures on science.
suited to the means of ordinary people; not expensive: popular prices on all tickets.
Origin of popular
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English populer, from Latin populāris; see people, -ar1
SYNONYMS FOR popular
1 bookmark, approved, liked.
5 common, current.
SEE SYNONYMS FOR popular ON THESAURUS.COM
synonym study for popular
5. See general.
historical usage of popular
Popular comes from the Latin adjective populāris “pertaining to all or most of the people, belonging to or used by the common people (as opposed to the military, the aristocracy, or the senators)”; it is a very loaded word in Roman political history. Populāris is a derivative of the noun populus “a human community, nation, the members of a society,” and in Rome “the entire people exercising its full legislative and judicial authority” (another weighty word). It is surprising that there is no certain etymology for populus. The most likely of several possible etymologies derives populus from Etruscan puplu (Etruscan, an extinct ancient language, is the “go to” language for Latin etymological problems); puplu appears in the name of the Etruscan town Pupluna ( Populōnia in Latin). For good measure, Rōma, the name of the city, is named after an Etruscan family, as are three of Rome’s seven hills. The current, most familiar sense of popular , “regarded with favor, approval, or affection by many people,” dates from the very early 17th century.