Colonus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person in ancient Rome who farmed land owned by others, primarily functioning as a tenant in agrarian settings
2. Referring to an individual in antiquity who cultivated property for landlords, often in a rural context
3. An individual in ancient Rome who worked land leased from a landowner, paying rent through labor or produce

Etymology: Latin "colonus" was a farmer who worked land, and the word's core meaning is "one who tills." It comes from "colere," which meant to cultivate, inhabit, or worship, and the same root gave English "culture," "cult," and "agriculture." The sense of settling new territory came later, as Roman "coloni" were sent out to found settlements, and the word ultimately gave English "colony" and "colonist" as well. In Roman times, though, a "colonus" was typically a tenant rather than a free landowner. He worked a plot belonging to a wealthy proprietor and paid his rent in produce or labour, and over the later empire these tenants were increasingly bound to the land they farmed. English borrowed the word directly from Latin, so it kept this specific sense of a rural worker on another person's estate, which is why historians still use it for that social class.

Synonyms: tenant, farmer, agriculturist, landholder, laborer

Antonyms: landlord, owner, proprietor, master, boss