boor

Meanings

1. A peasant.
2. A Boer, white South African of Dutch or Huguenot descent.
3. A yokel, country bumpkin.
4. An uncultured person; a vulgarian.

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch boer (“peasant”). Doublet of bauer, Boer, and bower (“peasant, farmer”). For the meaning development from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-, compare with other derived from this term 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”)). Compare typologically with pagan (see more).