Everything about Churl totally explained
A
churl (etymologically the same name as
Charles / Carl and
Old High German „karal“), in its earliest
Anglo-Saxon meaning, was simply "a man", but the word soon came to mean "a non-servile
peasant", still spelt
ceorle, and denoting the lowest rank of freemen. According to the
Oxford English Dictionary it later came to mean the opposite of the
nobility and
royalty, "a
common person". Says
Chadwick:
This meaning held through the
15th century, but by then the word had taken on negative overtone, meaning "a country person" and then "a low fellow". By the
19th century, a new and
pejorative meaning arose, "one inclined to uncivil or loutish behaviour".
The
ceorles of Anglo-Saxon times lived in a largely free society, and one in which their
fealty was principally to their
king. His low status is shown by his
wergild ("man-price"), which over a large part of
England was fixed at 200 shillings (one-sixth that of a
thegn).
Agriculture was largely community-based and communal in open-field systems. This freedom was eventually eroded by the increase in power of
feudal lords and the
manorial system. Some scholars argue however that anterior to the encroachment of the manorial system the
ceorles owed various services and rents to local lords and powers.
In
Scandinavian languages, the word
Karl has the same root as
churl and means "man". As
Housecarl, it came back to England. In
German,
Kerl is used to describe a somewhat rough and common man, as well as a (common) soldier.
Rígþula, a poem in the
Poetic Edda, explains the
social classes as originating from the three sons of Ríg:
Thrall, Karl and
Earl (
Þræl,
Karl and
Jarl). This story has been interpreted in the context of the proposed
trifunctional hypothesis of
Proto-Indo-European society.
The word
ceorle in a corrupted form is frequently found in
British place names, in towns such as
Carlton and
Charlton, meaning "the farm of the churls". Names such as
Carl and
Charles are derived from
cognates of
churl or
ceorle.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Churl'.
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