Churl

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /tʃɜːl/

Definitions

1. A person who is rude or surly
2. a miser who is stingy with resources
3. an individual lacking in civility or refinement often associated with a low social class

Etymology: The most striking twist in this word's history is that it once meant something close to "man" itself. In Old English, "ceorl" named a free commoner ranking below a thegn but above a thrall, a countryman or husbandman. Its ancestor, reconstructed as "karilaz" in Proto-Germanic, meant "elder" or "man," and the same root survives across the Germanic languages: Dutch "kerel," Swedish "karl," and German "Kerl" all still mean "fellow" or "man" in a neutral way. Over the Middle English centuries, the word slid downward in social standing. Once it described a free peasant, it came to mean a person without royal or noble rank, a serf or servant, and then a simpleton. The step from "rustic" to "rough, surly, ill-bred person" is probably a natural extension of those older senses, since country folk were commonly imagined as coarse by the people who looked down on them. The stinginess sense has a biblical source. The King James Version describes Nabal as "churlish and evil in his doings," and when this rich man refuses provisions to David's men, the word's association with meanness was reinforced. Nabal's grudging reply is the reason "churl" has come to suggest a person who will not share.

Synonyms: boor, ruffian, lout, oaf, clown

Antonyms: gentleman, sociable, polite, refined, cultured