) Common. (a) CLASS NAMES: i. Individual.
ii. Collective.
(b) MATERIAL.

(3) Abstract. (a) ATTRIBUTE.
(b) VERBAL

[Sidenote: _Names for special objects._]

4. A proper noun is a name applied to a particular object, whether
person, place, or thing.

It specializes or limits the thing to which it is applied, reducing it
to a narrow application. Thus, _city_ is a word applied to any one of
its kind; but _Chicago_ names one city, and fixes the attention upon
that particular city. _King_ may be applied to any ruler of a kingdom,
but _Alfred the Great_ is the name of one king only.

The word _proper_ is from a Latin word meaning _limited, belonging to
one_. This does not imply, however, that a proper name can be applied
to only one object, but that each time such a name is applied it is
fixed or proper to that object. Even if there are several Bostons or
Manchesters, the name of each is an individual or proper name.

[Sidenote: _Name for any individual of a class._]

5. A common noun is a name possessed by _any_ one of a class of
persons, animals, or things.

_Common_, as here used, is from a Latin word which means _general,
possessed by all_.

For instance, _road_ is a word that names _any_ highway outside of
cities; _wagon_ is a term that names _any_ vehicle of a certain kind
used for hauling: the words are of the widest application. We may say,
_the man here_, or _the man in front of you_, but the word _man_ is
here hedged in by other words or word groups: the name itself is of
general application.

[Sidenote: _Name for a group or collection of objects._]

Besides considering persons, animals, and things separately, we may
think of them in groups, and appropriate names to the groups.

Thus, men in groups may be called a _crowd_, or a _mob_, a
_committee_, or a _council_, or a _congress_, etc.

These are called COLLECTIVE NOUNS. They properly belong under common
nouns, because each group is considered as a unit, and the name
applied to it belongs to any group of its class.

[Sidenote: _Names for things thought of in mass._]

6. The definition given for common nouns applies more strictly to
class nouns. It may, however, be correctly used for another group of
nouns detailed below; for they are common nouns in the sense that the
names apply to _every particle of similar substance_, instead of to
each individual or separate objec