everyman

Perhaps from the Flemish play Elckerlijc (c. 1495) or its English translation Everyman (c. 1520).

everyman (plural everymen)

1. In fiction, drama, or allegory, the archetypical ordinary individual, frequently the protagonist in a parable of some sort.

   Coordinate terms: everywoman, everyboy, everygirl

   Near-synonyms: man on the street, John Q. Public (see more there)

   In the novels of John Updike, sometimes Rabbit is his own man, and sometimes he is everyman.