ceorl

American  

[chey-awrl] / ˈtʃeɪ ɔrl /

noun

Obsolete.

1. churl.

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ceorl British  

/ tʃɛəl /

noun

1. a freeman of the lowest class in Anglo-Saxon England

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Other Word Forms

• ceorlish
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of ceorl

before 1000; this form borrowed (17th century) < Old English

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ceorl

Now it is not a word transplanted by the Conquest; it was in use before the Conquest as the Latin equivalent of ceorl, geneat, and probably geb�r.

From Villainage in England Essays in English Mediaeval History by Vinogradoff, Paul

Chorl is frequently used for a countryman, in old books, from the Saxon ceorl.

From Folk-lore of Shakespeare by Thiselton-Dyer, Thomas Firminger

At all events, while the ceorl tasted all the bitterness of his serfdom, the adjudged felon in other stations was able to obtain much leniency.

From Legal Lore Curiosities of Law and Lawyers by Various

In this way the free ceorl of Anglo-Saxon times gradually becomes the 'villanus' of Domesday.

From A Short History of English Agriculture by Curtler, W. H. R. (William Henry Ricketts)

But these services and the time of rendering them were strictly limited by custom, not only in the case of the ceorl or villein but in that of the originally meaner "landless man."

From History of the English People, Volume I Early England, 449-1071; Foreign Kings, 1071-1204; The Charter, 1204-1216 by Green, John Richard