boor

Definition

A peasant.

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch boer (“peasant”). Doublet of bauer, Boer, and bower (“peasant, farmer”). For the meaning development compare with Russian обыва́тель (obyvátelʹ, “the average man/citizen, the man in the street, philistine, resident, inhabitant”), Polish bydło (“cattle, rabble”) (whence Russian бы́дло (býdlo, “rabble, uncultured or stupid people, sheeple”)).

Example Sentences

• "Not swear it, now I am a gentleman? Let boors and franklins say it, I’ll swear it."
• "For all the rich array and goodly port and countenance of Corinius, he seemed but a very boor beside the Lord Brandoch Daha, and dearly did each hate the other."
• "I question if any man ever saw his absent friend more clearly than did Shakespeare his Falstaff, for instance, or Scott his Balfour of Burleigh. But does it, therefore, follow that either of these great writers would, when hungry, have summoned up before him a clearer picture of his approaching dinner, than does the equally hungry or very much hungrier boor? This I doubt; and on the same principle I doubt if the said boor would see his dinner more clearly than a wolf, bear, or tiger would theirs when in quest of it."

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