churl

Definition

A free peasant (as opposed to a serf) of the lowest rank, below an earl and a thane; a freeman; also (more generally), a person without royal or noble status; a commoner.

Etymology

From Middle English churl, cherl, cheorl (“person not of the nobility or clergy; bondsman, serf, villein; peasant; (also figuratively) servant, slave; unlearned or unrefined person, boor, ignoramus; chap, fellow, man; husband”) [and other forms], from Old English ċeorl (“freeman ranking below a þegn but above a thrall; commoner, peasant; countryman, husbandman; man; husband”), from Proto-West Germanic *kerl, from Proto-Germanic *karilaz (“elder; man”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh₂- (“to grow old; to mature”). Doublet of carl /carle, ceorl, and karl. Sense 2.1 (“rough, surly, ill-bred person”) is probably an extension of sense 1 (“free peasant of the lowest rank; person without royal or noble status; bondman, serf”) and sense 2.2 (“countryman, peasant, rustic”). Sense 2.3 (“person who is stingy”) was influenced by Nabal, who is described in the King James Version of the Bible as “churlish and evil in his doings”; when Nabal, a rich man, is asked to give provisions to David’s men, he replies, “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?” (1 Samuel 25:3 and 10–11; spelling modernized). Cognates * Danish karl (“fellow, young man, farmhand”) * Dutch kerel (“churl; fellow, man”) * Low German kerl, kerel, kirl (“churl; fellow, man”) * North Frisian tzierl, tjierl, tsjerl (“churl; fellow, man”) * Old High German charl, charlo (German Kerl (“fellow, man”)) * Old Norse karl (“man”) (Icelandic karl (“man”)) * Polish karzeł (“small man”) * Scots churl (“a churl; a rustic”) * Swedish karl (“fellow, man”) * West Frisian tsjirl (“churl; fellow, man”)

Example Sentences

• "[F]rom this time forvvard I do pardon before God all the vvrongs that they haue done, or ſhall doe vnto me, vvhether they vvere, be, or ſhall be done by high or lovv perſon, rich or poore, Gentleman or Churle, vvithout excepting any ſtate or condition."
• "[A] churles curtesie rathely comes but either for gaine, or falshood."
• "Thus ſay the common People that knovv him, A Saint abroad, and a Devil at home: His poor Family finds it ſo, he is ſuch a churl, ſuch a railer at, and ſo unreaſonable vvith his Servants, that they neither knovv hovv to do for, or ſpeak to him."