peasant
English
Etymology
From Late Middle English paissaunt, from Anglo-Norman paisant, from Middle French païsant (“païsant”), from Old French païsan (“countryman, peasant”), from païs (“country”), from Late Latin pāgēnsis (“inhabitant of a district”), from Latin pāgus (“district”) + Old French -enc (“member of”), from Frankish -inc, -ing "-ing". More at -ing.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpɛzənt/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛzənt
Noun
peasant (plural peasants)
- A member of the lowly social class that toils on the land, constituted by small farmers and tenants, sharecroppers, farmhands and other laborers on the land where they form the main labor force in agriculture and horticulture.
- A country person.
- (derogatory) An uncouth, crude or ill-bred person.
- (strategy games) A worker unit.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
member of the agriculture low class
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country person
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uncouth, crude, or ill-bred person
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strategy games: worker unit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
Further reading
- "peasant" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 231.
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