churl

(chûrl)

1. A rude, boorish person. See Synonyms at boor.

2. A miserly person.

a. A ceorl.

b. A medieval English peasant.

[Middle English, from Old English ceorl, peasant.]

Word History: The Old English word ceorl (in which the c was pronounced (ch) as in modern English churl) designated a freeman of the lowest class—one who had a social position above a slave but below a thane. Ceorl comes from Germanic *karilaz, whose basic meaning is "old man." In Finnish, which is not a Germanic language, the Germanic word was borrowed and survives almost unchanged as karilas, "old man." The Old Norse descendant of the Germanic word, karl, means "old man, servant," and the Old High German equivalent, karal, meaning "man, lover, husband," has become the name Karl. The Germanic word also entered Old French as Charles, from which we have the name Charles. The Medieval Latin form Carolus is based on the Old High German karal. The fame of Carolus Magnus, "Charles the Great," or Charlemagne, added luster to the name Carolus, and the Slavic languages later borrowed the name as their general word for "king," korol' in Russian—and so, despite the gulf between a king and a churl, the Russsian korol and the Old English ceorl are related.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

churl

(tʃɜːl)

1. a surly ill-bred person

2. (Historical Terms) archaic a farm labourer

3. (Historical Terms) a variant spelling of ceorl

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

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

churl

(tʃɜrl)

n.

1. a rude, boorish, or surly person.

2. a peasant; rustic.

3. a niggard; miser.

4. ceorl.

[before 900; Middle English cherl, Old English ceorl man, freeman; c. Old Frisian tzerl, tzirl, Middle Low German kerle; akin to carl]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	churl - a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement boor, Goth, tike, tyke, barbarian, peasant disagreeable person, unpleasant person - a person who is not pleasant or agreeable
	2.	churl - a selfish person who is unwilling to give or spend niggard, scrooge, skinflint hoarder - a person who accumulates things and hides them away for future use pinchgut - a niggardly person who starves himself (and others)
	3.	churl - a bad-tempered person crank, crosspatch, grouch, grump disagreeable person, unpleasant person - a person who is not pleasant or agreeable crabby person, crab - a quarrelsome grouch hothead, fire-eater - a belligerent grouch misanthrope, misanthropist - someone who dislikes people in general

churl

noun

An unrefined, rude person:

barbarian, boor, chuff, Philistine, vulgarian, yahoo.

Translations

villanzone

churl

[tʃɜːl] N (= person) → patán m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

churl

n → ungehobelter Kerl, Rüpel m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

'He must have had some ups and downs in life to make him such a churl. Do you know anything of his history?'

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``touching the one of them, it were hard for me to render a reason for a fool speaking according to his folly; and the other churl is of that savage, fierce, intractable race, some of whom, as I have often told you, are still to be found among the descendants of the conquered Saxons, and whose supreme pleasure it is to testify, by all means in their power, their aversion to their conquerors.''

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There was no play nor graceful movement of his sceptre; he kept it straight and stiff like a man unpractised in oratory--one might have taken him for a mere churl or simpleton; but when he raised his voice, and the words came driving from his deep chest like winter snow before the wind, then there was none to touch him, and no man thought further of what he looked like."

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He is a drunken, brawling, perilous churl, as you may find to your cost."

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Young man, a whisper even sprang up in obscure malignity, that one ignorant and besotted Churl (a parent) so committed himself as to object to it by name.

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They are churls, and they must speak like churls and not like fine folk, and if you don't like the tale, turn over the leaf and choose another.

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Now, if you'd only an estate and a mansion, and a park, and a title, how you could play the exclusive, maintain the rights of your class, train your tenantry in habits of respect to the peerage, oppose at every step the advancing power of the people, support your rotten order, and be ready for its sake to wade knee-deep in churls' blood; as it is, you've no power; you can do nothing; you're wrecked and stranded on the shores of commerce; forced into collision with practical men, with whom you cannot cope, for YOU'LL NEVER BE A TRADESMAN."

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But, above all things, I warn my master that if he is to take me with him it must be on the condition that he is to do all the fighting, and that I am not to be called upon to do anything except what concerns keeping him clean and comfortable; in this I will dance attendance on him readily; but to expect me to draw sword, even against rascally churls of the hatchet and hood, is idle.

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They simply looked down upon all the rest as ignorant churls; but Raskolnikov could not look upon them like that.

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Sam Churl Kim https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3105-0118

Temperature and microbial changes of corn silage during aerobic exposure

Modern critical opinion of Lydgate's fables, as of his poetry in general, has varied dramatically, with The Churl and the Bird and The Horse, the Sheep and the Goose often receiving approbation and the hopes Fabules generally ignored or dismissed.

The Politics of Beastly Language: John Lydgate as Fabulist and Translator