churl

Where it comes from

Inherited from West Midland Middle English churle (“person not of the nobility or clergy; serf, servant, simpleton, fellow”, East Midland Middle English cherl), from Old English ċeorl (“freeman ranking below a þegn but above a thrall; commoner, peasant; countryman, husbandman; man; husband”), from Proto-West Germanic *kerl, from Proto-Germanic *karilaz (“elder; man”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh₂- (“to grow old; to mature”). Doublet of carl /carle, ceorl, and karl.

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).

Cognates

* Danish karl (“fellow, young man, farmhand”)

* Dutch kerel (“churl; fellow, man”)

* Low German kerl, kerel, kirl (“churl; fellow, man”)

* North Frisian tzierl, tjierl, tsjerl (“churl; fellow, man”)

* Old High German charl, charlo (German Kerl (“fellow, man”))

* Old Norse karl (“man”) (Icelandic karl (“man”))

* Polish karzeł (“small man”)

* Scots churl (“a churl; a rustic”)

* Swedish karl (“fellow, man”)

* West Frisian tsjirl (“churl; fellow, man”)