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churl

Pronunciation: /tʃɜːl/

The English word “churl” has 6 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. 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.
  2. A bondman or serf.
  3. A rough, surly, ill-bred person; a boor.
  4. A countryman, a peasant, a rustic.
  5. A person who is stingy, especially with money; a selfish miser, a niggard.
  6. A freedman, ranked below a thane but above a thrall.

Etymology

Inherited from West Midland Middle English churle (“person not of the nobility or clergy; serf, servant, simpleton, fellow”, East Midland Middle English cherl), 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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.