peasant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English paissaunt,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman paisant, also paisaunt and pesant,^[4][5][6][7] and Old French païsant,^[4][6][8] modern paysan.^[4][5][7] The Old French word, recorded from the 12th century,^[4][5] is an alteration, with the ending -ant, of earlier païsenc,^[6][7][8][3] formed on païs (“country, region”), modern pays,^[5][7][8] with a suffix -enc of Frankish origin, probably cognate with the English suffix -ing.^[4][5][8] The OED explains the base as a suffixed form of Late Latin pāgēnsis (“of the country or a country district”), used from the 6th century as a noun for the inhabitant of a country district,^[4] from classical Latin pāgus (“country district”),^[4][2][5][7] the source also of pagan.^[5][3][8] Catalan pagès comes directly from the Latin adjective, while Italian paesano was probably formed separately.^[4] The Medieval Latin form paisantus is found in a British source of 1204.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who lives in the country and works the land, as a smallholder or labourer: about 1410, in Henry Lovelich's Merlin, in a manuscript from before 1450.^[4] Barnhart dates the form passant, countryman, rustic, to about 1410 and paissaunt to about 1451,^[8] and Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Already in Anglo-Norman, from about 1165, the word meant both a country dweller who worked the land and an uncouth bumpkin.^[9] In English the scornful senses followed in the 16th century: a rustic thought of as ignorant, crass or rude from 1576, and a general term of abuse for a person of low status, an ignorant, stupid or unprincipled person, from 1581.^[4][6] Green's Dictionary of Slang notes that this 16th- and 17th-century use was at first aimed at "the subjects of France".^[10] A rare sense "serf, bonded labourer" is recorded from 1550 to 1570,^[4][6] and the adjective meant "rustic; base, knavish" from 1550 until 1863.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a hind; one whose business is rural labour".^[11] The neutral adjective, of or belonging to peasants, dates from 1680,^[4] and the sociological use for a member of an agricultural class living by subsistence farming is a later specialization.^[4][6] Since 1895 the adjective has also described clothes and furnishings made in a peasant style,^[4] and Etymonline dates garments such as the peasant blouse to 1953.^[5] As 20th-century slang, peasant is again a general insult implying stupidity or lack of sophistication, as in Dorothy Parker's "you hulking peasant" (1935).^[10] A verb peasant, to make a peasant of, is recorded once, in Marston (1598).^[4] The collective peasantry is recorded before 1553.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1410 – a countryman who works the land.^[4][8]
• 1550 – a serf (obsolete by 1570); as an adjective, rustic, base.^[4]
• 1553 – peasantry, peasants as a class.^[8]
• 1576 – a rustic regarded as ignorant or rude.^[4]
• 1581 – a general term of abuse.^[4]
• 1598 – verb, to make a peasant of (Marston).^[4]
• 1680 – adjective, of or relating to peasants.^[4]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as "a hind; one whose business is rural labour".^[11]
• 1895 – adjective, in the style of peasant clothing or crafts.^[4]
• 1935 – slang insult, in Dorothy Parker.^[10]
• 1953 – peasant blouse and similar garments.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A member of a class of small farmers and farm workers of low social status, living chiefly by agriculture, especially in history or in Europe: The peasants paid their rent in grain.^[12][13][4]
2. (informal, derogatory) A person from the country; a rustic.^[12][4]
3. (informal, derogatory) An uneducated, unrefined or boorish person: Out of my way, you peasants!^[12][13][10]

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or having the status of peasants: peasant farmers.^[13][4]
2. Made in the style of the clothes or crafts of peasants: a peasant skirt.^[13][4][12]

Word family

• peasantlike
• peasantry

Related words

• pagan
• paysage

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster