English
churl
Churl comes from West Midland Middle English churle ‘person not of the nobility or clergy’, from Old English ċeorl ‘freeman ranking below a þegn but above a thrall’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *karilaz ‘elder’.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*karilaz‘elder’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kerlreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ċeorl‘freeman ranking below a þegn but above a thrall’
- West Midland Middle Englishmodernchurle‘person not of the nobility or clergy’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1580churl
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*karilaz‘elder’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kerlreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ċeorl‘freeman ranking below a þegn but above a thrall’
- West Midland Middle Englishmodernchurle‘person not of the nobility or clergy’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1580churl
Earliest quotation: c. 1580, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., (please specify the folio): “[A] churles curtesie rathely comes but either for gaine,…”
The story
Sense 2.1 (‘rough, surly, ill-bred person’) is probably an extension of sense 1 (‘free peasant of the lowest rank; person without royal or noble status; bondman, serf’) and sense 2.2 (‘countryman, peasant, rustic’). Sense 2.3 (‘person who is stingy’) was influenced by Nabal, who is described in the King James Version of the Bible as “churlish and evil in his doings”; when Nabal, a rich man, is asked to give provisions to David’s men, he replies, “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?” (1 Samuel 25:3 and 10–11; spelling modernized).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh₂- ‘to grow old’
corn, grain, granite, kernel, garner, grange, garnet, kern, granary, geriatrics, granule, 13 more
through Proto-Germanic *karilaz ‘elder’
Today it means
noun A free peasant (as opposed to a serf) of the lowest rank, below an earl and a thane; a freeman; also (more generally), a person without royal or noble status; a commoner.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *karilaz / churl