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groundling (n.)

"theater patron in the pit" (which originally had no floor or benches), c. 1600, from ground (n.) in an Elizabethan sense of "pit of a theater" + -ling. From the beginning emblematic of bad or unsophisticated taste. Old English grundling was a type of fish.

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Definitions of groundling from WordNet

groundling (n.)
in Elizabethan theater: a playgoer in the cheap standing section;
From wordnet.princeton.edu