churl

[churl]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR churl ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a rude, boorish, or surly person.

a peasant; rustic.

a niggard; miser: He was a churl in his affections.

English History. a freeman of the lowest rank.

Origin of churl

before 900; Middle English cherl, Old English ceorl man, freeman; cognate with Dutch kerel, German Kerl; akin to carl

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for churl

rustic, clodhopper, oaf, tightwad, beast, provincial, peasant, yokel, miser, niggard, chuff, mucker

Examples from the Web for churl

Historical Examples of churl

I would do battle for it even with the churl that should produce the title-deeds.
Footprints on the Sea-Shore (From "Twice Told Tales")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Let me get something for myself," he says, like the churl in Theocritus.
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 3, August, 1850.
Various
"Churl or not, his coin is good," said Harry Vint, philosophically.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104, June, 1866
Various
A man may value what is his own without being a miser or a churl.
Tristram of Blent
Anthony Hope
A man is a churl who enforces laws, when he himself has not the strength to observe them.
The Patrician
John Galsworthy

British Dictionary definitions for churl

churl

noun

a surly ill-bred person

archaic a farm labourer

a variant spelling of ceorl

Word Origin for churl

Old English ceorl; related to Old Norse karl, Middle Low German kerle, Greek gerōn old man

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for churl

Old English ceorl "peasant, freeman, man without rank," from Proto-Germanic *kerlaz, *karlaz (cf. Old Frisian zerl "man, fellow," Middle Low German kerle, Dutch kerel "freeman of low degree," German Kerl "man, husband," Old Norse karl "old man, man").

It had various meaning in early Middle English, including "man of the common people," "a country man," "husbandman," "free peasant;" by 1300, it meant "bondman, villain," also "fellow of low birth or rude manners." For words for "common man" that acquire an insulting flavor over time, compare boor, villain. In this case, however, the same word also has come to mean "king" in many languages (e.g. Lithuanian karalius, Czech kral, Polish krol) via Charlemagne.