peasant

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   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.

   The Ambassador warned him of the consequences if his mission to Moscow were a failure, both to Churchill's position at home and to Russia's prospects in the war. He insisted that he should not allow himself to be offended 'by a peasant who didn't know any better'. Churchill listened in silence, then returned to the dacha leaving Clark Kerr outside.

2. 2
   adj

   Characteristic of or relating to a peasant or peasants; unsophisticated.

   peasant class

3. 3
   adj

   Lowly, vulgar; reprehensible; dishonest.

   Oh what a Rogue and Pesant slave am I?

4. 4
   noun

   a country person

5. 5
   noun

   a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement

6. 6
   noun

   one of a (chiefly European) class of agricultural laborers

7. 7
   noun

   A country person.

8. 8
   noun

   An uncouth, crude or ill-bred person.

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).