peasant

Pluralpeasants

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A member of the low-ranking social class of small farmers, tenants, sharecroppers, and laborers who work the land and form the main agricultural workforce.

   Most medieval peasants never traveled more than a day's walk from their village.

   A peasant who lost his tenancy had little choice but to hire out as a day laborer.

   Similarserf, peon

   Oppositearistocrat, noble

   Note

   The social-class sense, whose name is really a place: Old French païsant, built on païs, "country," from Latin pāgus, "countryside." The ending is not a participle ending. It is Old French -enc, "member of," from a Frankish suffix -ing. At root, then, a peasant is one who belongs to the countryside. The ideas of rank and toil came later. Serf and peon are its near neighbors.

2. 2
   nounderogatorycountable

   An uncouth, crude, or ill-bred person; someone seen as lacking manners or refinement.

   Only a peasant would drink a fine Bordeaux straight from the bottle.

   He acted like an absolute peasant at the gallery opening, talking loudly through the speeches.

   Similaryokel, hick, redneck, hillbilly, boor

   Oppositesophisticate

   Note

   An insult that borrows the class word to sneer at manners. Its target need not live in the country or work the land, only behave in a way the speaker finds crude. Boor is its closest synonym. Because it trades on the social-class meaning, it can sound snobbish as well as rude, so it suits banter or a deliberate put-down rather than neutral description.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A person who lives in the countryside rather than in a town or city; a rural dweller.

   Every peasant in the valley knew the shortcut over the ridge.

   The novel contrasts the anxious city clerk with the easygoing peasants of his home village.

   Similarvillager, rustic

   Note

   Of all the senses, this one sits closest to the word's origin, which is told with the social-class meaning. It places a person rather than ranking one: someone from the country, with no claim about what work they do or where they stand. Rustic and villager are its nearest synonyms and share that neutrality.

4. 4
   adjectivebefore a noun

   Characteristic of or relating to peasants or their way of life; simple, rustic, or unsophisticated.

   The restaurant serves hearty peasant cooking from southern France.

   Critics called his taste peasant, yet his plain furniture sold extremely well.

   Similarrustic, simple, rural, unsophisticated, country

   Oppositesophisticated, refined

   Note

   An adjective that sits before its noun, as in peasant class, peasant dish and peasant cooking, and does not take more or most. Food is where it is busiest. In Brad Bird's Ratatouille (2007), Colette warns, "It's a peasant dish," meaning too humble for a critic. On a menu the same word can instead advertise hearty, honest simplicity.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A worker unit in a strategy game, used to gather resources and construct buildings.

   Each peasant can carry ten units of gold back to the keep.

   She queued up five more peasants to speed up her castle's construction.

   Similarworker

   Note

   Strategy games borrow the class word for their humblest piece: the cheap, noncombat unit that does the economy's work rather than the fighting. Beyond gathering and building, peasants usually handle repairs. Their numbers matter most in the early game, when a player's economy is being laid down, which is why players talk of queuing or training them in batches.

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