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'Garden-variety' is a horticultural term used to describe plants that are regarded as native or common, i.e. not exotic or rare. They are the varieties that you may find in your garden. It is therefore a term that contains a lot of (British, American, etc.) cultural baggage, because where one's garden is, indeed whether one has such a thing as a garden, determines which plants are regarded as potentially being common. The phrase 'common or garden' is used in the same way. Outside horticultural contexts, the two terms are used as adjectives for specimens that are plain, unremarkable, standard, etc. Occasionally 'common or garden' can have a pejorative flavour. When it is miswritten as 'commoner garden', as it often is, it is probably because the pejorative sense of 'commoner' (peasant, prole) has seeped into the phrase. Another horticultural term that occurs in everyday speech and contains more cultural preconceptions than is usually noticed is the noun and verb 'weed' (any self-planting plant may be a weed, since it is merely a plant that you do not want to grow where it is growing). * * Film-Philosophy salon After hitting 'reply' please always delete the text of the message you are replying to. To leave, send the message: leave film-philosophy to: [log in to unmask] Or visit: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/film-philosophy.html For help email: [log in to unmask], not the salon. * Film-Philosophy journal: http://www.film-philosophy.com Contact: [log in to unmask] **