English Explanatory Dictionary

peasant

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. 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.
  2. A country person.
  3. An uncouth, crude or ill-bred person.
  4. A worker unit.
adj
  1. Characteristic of or relating to a peasant or peasants; unsophisticated.
  2. Lowly, vulgar; reprehensible; dishonest.

Pronunciation

/ˈpɛzənt/ en-us-peasant.ogg

Word forms

peasant peasants

Etymology

From Late Middle English paissaunt, from Anglo-Norman paisant, from Old French païsant, païsan (“countryman, peasant”), from païs (“country”), from Latin pāgus (“countryside”) + Old French -enc (“member of”), from Frankish -inc, -ing "-ing"; which was an alteration of earlier Late Latin pāgēnsis (“inhabitant of a district”). Doublet of paisano. Via Latin pāgus cognate with pagan (compare typologically, see there for more).

Synonyms

peon serf churl rustic villager boor bogger bogtrotter bucolic bydlo culchie carl corncob cornhusker country bumpkin country cousin clodhopper dubbo joskin hayseed hick hob hobnail hog-rubber honyock hunk lob promdi provincial rube woolly back yokel

Derived words

antipeasant nonpeasant peasant blouse peasantess peasanthood peasantish peasantism peasantist peasantize peasantless peasantlike peasantly peasantness peasantry peasantship peasant shirt peasant top peasantwear peasanty Russian peasant multiplication technopeasant
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