Churl

A churl (<a href="/facts/Old_High_German/Vr3YC8sW">Old High German</a> karal), in its earliest <a href="/facts/Old_English/9rsmQG2a">Old English</a> (Anglo-Saxon) meaning, was simply "a man" or more particularly a "free man", but the word soon came to mean "a non-servile <a href="/facts/Peasant/LpXfJ1HH">peasant</a>", still spelled ċeorl(e), and denoting the lowest rank of freemen. According to the <a href="/facts/Oxford_English_Dictionary/qaxKX8Bc">Oxford English Dictionary</a>, it later came to mean the opposite of <a href="/facts/Nobility/WLPIA8GT">nobility</a> and <a href="/facts/Royal_family/cjN7Nbw7">royalty</a>, "a <a href="/facts/Common_people/fflFNBwD">common person</a>". Says <a href="/facts/Hector_Munro_Chadwick/l6CpABGx">Chadwick</a>:

<blockquote>we find that the distinction between <a href="/facts/Thegn/VgW982za">thegn</a> and ceorl is from the time of <a href="/facts/%C3%86thelstan/5cqXYCub">Aethelstan</a> the broad line of demarcation between the classes of society.</blockquote>

Look up churl in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

This meaning held through the 15th century, but by then the word had taken on negative overtones, meaning "a country person" and then "a low fellow". By the 19th century, a new and <a href="/facts/Pejorative/UId8vPsx">pejorative</a> meaning arose, "one inclined to uncivil or loutish behaviour"—hence "churlish" (cf. the pejorative sense of the term boor, whose original meaning of "country person" or "farmer" is preserved in Dutch and Afrikaans boer and German Bauer, although the latter has its own pejorative connotations such as those prompting its use as the name for the chess piece known in English as a <a href="/facts/Pawn_(chess)/Xk3E1UIN">pawn</a>; also the word <a href="/facts/Villain/vKb1VlIE">villain</a>—derived from <a href="/facts/Anglo-Norman_language/GmwkRAzQ">Anglo-French</a> and <a href="/facts/Old_French/QcRpPdAc">Old French</a>, originally meaning "farmhand"—has gone through a similar process to reach its present meaning).
The ċeorles of early medieval England lived in a largely free society, and one in which their <a href="/facts/Fealty/MSYBCrE2">fealty</a> was principally to their <a href="/facts/Monarch/YNmBzgBl">king</a>. Their low status is shown by their <a href="/facts/Wergild/BHmL1YIp">werġild</a> ("man-price"), which, over a large part of England, was fixed at 200 <a href="/facts/Shilling/AwY1RJAz">shillings</a> (one-sixth that of a theġn). Agriculture was largely community-based and communal in open-field systems. This freedom was eventually eroded by the increase in power of <a href="/facts/Feudalism/WCK7l9gA">feudal lords</a> and the <a href="/facts/Manorialism/bvqYxBcJ">manorial system</a>. Some scholars argue, however, that anterior to the encroachment of the manorial system the ċeorles owed various services and rents to local lords and powers.
In the <a href="/facts/North_Germanic_languages/zocYfWp8">North Germanic (Scandinavian) languages</a>, the word Karl has the same root as churl and meant originally a "free man". As "<a href="/facts/Housecarl/FWNfIESK">housecarl</a>", it came back to England. In <a href="/facts/German_language/oWaQIDA8">German</a>, Kerl is used to describe a somewhat rough and common man and is no longer in use as a synonym for a common soldier (<a href="/facts/Potsdam_Giants/DCcz3Vol">die langen Kerls</a> of King <a href="/facts/Frederick_William_I_of_Prussia/hXuGWdlN">Frederick William I of Prussia</a>). <a href="/facts/R%C3%ADg_(Norse_god)/eRvJ7dsx">Rígsþula</a>, a poem in the <a href="/facts/Poetic_Edda/An8wD6WM">Poetic Edda</a>, explains the <a href="/facts/Social_class/gJbHDVNc">social classes</a> as originating from the three sons of Ríg: <a href="/facts/Thrall/9Hx8qwRH">Thrall</a>, Karl and <a href="/facts/Earl/xPzkx4yT">Earl</a> (Þræl, Karl and Jarl). This story has been interpreted in the context of the proposed <a href="/facts/Trifunctional_hypothesis/MBr6W0cL">trifunctional hypothesis</a> of <a href="/facts/Proto-Indo-European_society/t8TEcj6e">Proto-Indo-European society</a>.
Cognates to the word ceorle are frequently found in place names, throughout the <a href="/facts/English-speaking_world/qaq1SXu4">Anglophone</a> world, in towns such as <a href="/facts/Carlton_(disambiguation)/EEKSMNql">Carlton</a> and <a href="/facts/Charlton_(disambiguation)/UyPvkTdD">Charlton</a>, meaning "the farmstead of the churls". Names such as <a href="/facts/Carl_(name)/gJsv6DNC">Carl</a> and <a href="/facts/Charles/p3hART8N">Charles</a> are derived from <a href="/facts/Cognates/nXETf5Y4">cognates</a> of churl or ċeorle.
While the word churl went down in the social scale, the first name derived from the same etymological source ("Karl" in German, "Charles" in French and English, "<a href="/facts/Carlos_(given_name)/kjok81sf">Carlos</a>" in Spanish, Karel in Dutch, etc.) remained prestigious enough to be used frequently by many European royal families - owing originally to the fame of <a href="/facts/Charlemagne/o0PlxScC">Charlemagne</a>, to which was added that of later illustrious kings and emperors of the same name. The <a href="/facts/Polish_language/lzpvYDvV">Polish</a> word for "king", Król, is also derived from the same origin.
In her tragedy Ethwald (Part II), <a href="/facts/Joanna_Baillie/bsJ5o64V">Joanna Baillie</a> uses the spelling cairl, and in Act 2, Scene II, the characters, First Cairl, Second Cairl and Third Cairl are found searching amongst the dead upon a battle field. This play is set in <a href="/facts/Mercia/pdznosKY">Mercia</a>.

Churl open-in-new

Churl