▪ I. churl, n.
(tʃɜːl)
Forms: 1 ceorl, 2–3 cheorl, 2–5 cherl, (3 chærle, 4–5 cherle, 5 cheerl, cherll(e, chirl, cherelle, cherld, cherol), 3–7 chorle, 4–7 churle (6 churryll), 5– churl.
[OE. ceorl:—WGer. kerl (Fris. tzerl, MDu. kerel, kerle, Du. kerel, MLG. kerle, MG. kerl(e, Ger. kerl, pointing to OTeut. types *kerlo-z, *kerlon-, beside *karlo-z, *karlon-, which gave ON. karl, OHG. charl, charlo: see carl and charl.]
1. A male human being, a man; esp. ‘man’ as correlative to ‘wife’, husband. (In ME. mingled with other senses.)
| a 800 Corp. Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 54 Uxorius, ceorl. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John iv. 17 Wel þu cwæde þæt þu næfst ceorl, witodlice þu hæf[de]st fif ceorlas [1160 Hatton cheorles], and se ðe ðu nu hæfst nis ðin ceorl. c 1200 Ormin 14788 Alde and ȝunge, And were and wif, and cherl and child. c 1230 Hali Meid. 39 Þe croh eorneð iþe fur & þe cheorl chideð. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2715 Moyses..hente ðe cherl wið hise wond. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus i. 1024 Thow hast ful grete care, Lest the cherl may fal out of the Mone. |
2. In the OE. constitution: A man simply, without rank; a member of the third or lowest rank of freemen. (Only OE. except Hist.)
| a 1000 Law ælfred in Thorpe Laws I. 64 B, Swa we eac settaþ be eallum hadum, ᵹe ceorle ᵹe eorle. a 1000 in Thorpe Laws I. 182 (Bosw.) Twelfhyndes mannes aþ forstent vi ceorla aþ. c 1205 Lay. 11205 ærst he sloh þæ eorles and þrallede þæ chærles. 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 453 The Churle or Yeoman. c 1630 Risdon Surv. Devon §284 (1810) 296 The Saxons..made three degrees of free-men; to wit—an earl, a thane, and a churl. 1861 Pearson Early & Mid. Ages Eng. 72 The freeman proper, or ceorl, was the man who preferred to settle on his share of the land won in war. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxii. 27 Villanus, a word..beginning to bear a meaning much lower than that of the old English Churl which it translates. |
b. In a looser and more general application, this sense has come down to modern times, esp. as the antithesis of king, noble, gentle; but often mingled with other senses.
| 1382 Wyclif Pref. Ep. iv. 65 Chirl Petre, and cherl Joon, of whom either myȝt seyn, and if I be vnwise in word, neuerthelater not in kunnyng. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶687 As wel may the cherl be saved as the lord. c 1480 Childrenes Bk. 34 in Babees Bk. (1868) 18 Pyke not þyne Eris ne thy nostrellis; If þou do, men wolle sey þou come of cherlis. 1612 Shelton Quix. I. iii. i. 111 Rich or poor, Gentleman or Churl. 1845 Hirst Poems 47 Not the churl I seem, But one of lofty birth. 1877 Morley Carlyle Crit. Misc. Ser. i. (1878) 198 [He] warns all whom it concerns, from King to churl. |
† 3. A tenant in pure villeinage; a serf, a bondman. (The position to which most of the OE. ceorlas were reduced after the Norman conquest.)
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 86 [He] seið to þe knihte þet robbeð his poure men..Uor euere me schal þene cheorl pilken and peolien. c 1340 Cursor M. 2136 (Fairf.) Of Cham chorle [v.r. thrall] come ful riȝt. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 121 For may no cherle chartre make ne his catel selle With-outen leue of his lorde. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 239 A cherle [servus] was wiþ hym in his chare. c 1430 Lydg. Chorle & Byrde (1818) 17 A chorles chorle is alway woo be goon. 1552 Huloet, Churle or villayne regardant, colonarius. 1596 Spenser State Irel. Wks. (1862) 535/1 Old men, women, children, and hyndes (which they call churles). 1607 Davies 1st Let. Earl Salisb. in Hist. Tracts (1787) 255 He [Mr. Guyre] had almost a ballibetagh of land, which he manured with his own churles. |
4. A countryman, peasant, rustic, boor. (Now usually tinged with other senses.)
| c 1205 Lay. 4260 ælc cheorl [c 1275 man] eæt his sulche. 1382 Wyclif Wisd. xvii. 16 If forsothe a cherl who were, or a shepperde. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 72 Cherelle or charle, rusticus. 1548 Hall Chron. (1809) 675 The Peisants or Chorles of the contrey. 1579 E. K. Gloss. in Spenser Sheph. Cal. July, Kerne, a Churle or Farmer. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 335 A churl, or countrey carl: Rusticus. 1783 Crabbe Village ii. Wks. 1834 II. 92 See the stout churl, in drunken fury great. 1832 Tennyson Lady of Shalott ii. ii, The surly village-churls. |
5. Used as a term of disparagement or contempt; base fellow, villain. In modern times usually: Rude low-bred fellow.
| c 1300 Havelok 682 Go hom swiþe, fule drit, cherl; Go heþen. c 1340 Cursor M. 1736 (Trin.) Wiþ scorne alle him vnswerde And seide whi is þis cherle [v.r. carl] ferde. c 1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 460 Metillius, the foule cherl, the swyn. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. clxxxvii. 165 He called the noble Erle and gentil Thomas of lancastre Cherle. 1536 in W. H. Turner Sel. Rec. Oxford 138 Come forth..horson gorbelled churryll. 1614 T. Adams Devil's Banquet 194 The miserable Churle..not vouchsafeing to answere. 1793 Burns Meg o' the Mill, She's left the guid fellow and ta'en the churl. 1821 Byron Sardan. i. ii. (1868) 351 Since..this churl has check'd Thy gentle spirit, go. 1841–4 Emerson Ess. Spir. Laws Wks. (Bohn) I. 62 Graces..which are lost upon the eye of a churl. 1845 Disraeli Sybil (1863) 244 ‘Unmannerly churl!’ exclaimed Sybil. 1874 Ruskin Fors Clav. IV. 102 Sentiments which in all ages have distinguished the gentleman from the churl. |
6. spec. One who is sordid, ‘hard’, or stingy in money-matters; a niggard; a miser. Cf. carl.
[The application of churlish to Nabal in the Bible has app. done much to make this the prevalent modern sense.]
| 1535 Coverdale Isa. xxxii. 5 Then shal the nygarde be no more called gentle, ner the churle lyberall. 1570 Levins Manip. 191 A churle, ingratus, parcus. a 1593 H. Smith 3 Serm. (1624) 17 When the Churles barnes were full, he bade his soule take rest. 1598 Deloney Jacke Newb., Was not at any time found a churl of his purse. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) I. 36 When a few words will rescue misery out of her distress, I hate the man who can be a churl of them. 1885 M. E. Braddon Wyllard's Weird II. i. 4 Your Parisian landlord is a churl and a niggard. |
7. Comb. a. as churl-king, churl-mind, churl-saving.
| 1595 Polimanteia (1881) 57 More courteous then the churle-sauing Abigal. 1861 Pearson Early & Mid. Ages Eng. 152 Eadwig..who was called contemptuously the churl-king, because only the people were for him. 1874 Ruskin Fors Clav. IV. 103 The conception..seems ludicrous to the impotent churl mind. |
b. churl's, in plant names: as churl's cress, mustard, applied by Lyte to a cruciferous plant, prob. Lepidium campestre; churl's head, Knapweed or Hardheads (Centaurea nigra); churl's treacle, a species of garlic (Allium sativum).
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens v. lxii. 628 The second kind [of Thlaspi] is called..in high Douche Baurn senff or Baurn kress..that is to say..Churles Cresse. Ibid., I thinke it best to call [thlaspi] churles mustard. |
▪ II. † churl, a. Obs. (or ? attrib.)
Churlish.
| 1864 Webster cites Ford. |
▪ III. † churl, v.1 Obs.
[f. churl n.]
1. intr. To take a husband; cf. to wive.
| a 1000 in Thorpe Laws II. 346. 19 (Bosw.) Ðær man eft wifaþ, oððe wif eft ceorlaþ. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxii. 30 Hiᵹ ne ceorliað [Hatton cheorliaþ] on þam æriste. |
2. trans. To play the churl or niggard towards (a person), to begrudge. Cf. churl n. 6.
| 1696 Aubrey Misc. (1857) 182 You need not, says he, churle me in a piece of meat. |
3. intr. To grumble at like a churl.
| 1626 W. Sclater Expos. 2 Thess. (1629) 4 Murmure, and little lesse then churle at him, if in the least sort hee afflict vs. Ibid. 209 Churling at Gods hand in our afflictions. |
▪ IV. churl
Sc. variant of chirl v.