peasant
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Peasant — Peas ant, n. [OF. pa[ i]sant (the i being perh. due to confusion with the p. pr. of verbs), pa[ i]san, F. paysan, fr. OF. & F. pays country, fr. L. pagus the country. See {Pagan}.] A countryman; a rustic; especially, one of the lowest class of… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
Peasant — Peas ant, a. Rustic, rural. Spenser. [1913 Webster] … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
peasant — early 15c., from Anglo Fr. paisant (mid 14c.), O.Fr. paisent (12c.), earlier paisenc, from pais country, region + Frankish suffix enc ing. Pais is from L.L. pagensis inhabitant of the district, from L. pagus country or rural district (see PAGAN… … Etymology dictionary
peasant — [n] farmer boor, bumpkin, countryman/woman, cropper, farmhand, hayseed*, hick*, hired hand, laborer, peon, planter, provincial, rube, rustic, serf, sharecropper, villein; concepts 347,348,423 … New thesaurus
peasant — ► NOUN 1) a poor smallholder or agricultural labourer of low social status. 2) informal an ignorant, rude, or unsophisticated person. DERIVATIVES peasantry noun. ORIGIN Old French paisent, from pais country … English terms dictionary
peasant — [pez′ənt] n. [LME paissaunt < Anglo Fr paisant < MFr païsent < OFr < païs, country < LL pagensis, belonging to the district < pagus, district: see PAGAN] 1. any person of the class of small farmers or of farm laborers, as in… … English World dictionary
Peasant — A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays , or countryside. The term peasant today is sometimes used in a pejorative sense… … Wikipedia
peasant — peasantlike, adj. /pez euhnt/, n. 1. a member of a class of persons, as in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, who are small farmers or farm laborers of low social rank. 2. a coarse, unsophisticated, boorish, uneducated person of little financial… … Universalium
peasant */ — UK [ˈpez(ə)nt] / US [ˈpezənt] noun [countable] Word forms peasant : singular peasant plural peasants 1) someone who works on another person s farm or on their own small farm. This word is used mainly about people in poor countries or people in… … English dictionary
peasant — Used as a term of abuse to a person, usually a man, to imply that he is without education or manners. The term is certainly not obsolete, as the Oxford English Dictionary states, though it is less used now than in earlier times. The… … A dictionary of epithets and terms of address
