View source for Churl

{{Short description|Non-servile peasant}}
{{Anglo-Saxon status}}
A '''churl''' ([[Old High German]] {{Lang|goh|karal}}), in its earliest [[Old English]] (Anglo-Saxon) meaning, was simply "a man" or more particularly a "free man",<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Churl|volume=6|pages=349–350}}</ref> but the word soon came to mean "a non-servile [[peasant]]", still spelled {{Lang|ang|ċeorl(e)}}, and denoting the lowest rank of freemen. According to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', it later came to mean the opposite of [[nobility]] and [[royal family|royalty]], "a [[Common people|common person]]". Says [[Hector Munro Chadwick|Chadwick]]:<ref>H. Munro Chadwick, ''Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1905), p. 77.</ref>
{{quote|we find that the distinction between [[thegn]] and ceorl is from the time of [[Æthelstan|Aethelstan]] the broad line of demarcation between the classes of society.|sign=|source=}}
{{wiktionary|churl}}
This meaning held through the 15th century, but by then the word had taken on negative overtones, 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"—hence "churlish" (cf. the pejorative sense of the term ''boor'', whose original meaning of "country person" or "farmer" is preserved in Dutch and Afrikaans {{Lang|nl|boer|size=100%|italic=default}} and German {{Lang|de|Bauer}}, although the latter has its own pejorative connotations such as those, prompting its use as the name for the chess piece known in English as a [[Pawn (chess)|pawn]]; also the word [[villain]]—derived from [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-French]] and [[Old French]], originally meaning "farmhand"<ref>{{cite book |title=Chambers Dictionary of Etymology |editor=Robert K. Barnhart |year=1988 |publisher=Chambers Harrap Publishers |location=New York |isbn=0-550-14230-4 |pages=1204}}</ref>—has gone through a similar process to reach its present meaning).

The {{Lang|ang|ċeorles|italic=default|size=100%}} of early medieval England lived in a largely free society, and one in which their [[fealty]] was principally to their [[monarch|king]]. Their low status is shown by their ''[[Wergild|werġild]]'' ("man-price"), which, over a large part of England, was fixed at 200 [[shilling]]s (one-sixth that of a ''theġn''). Agriculture was largely community-based and communal in open-field systems. This freedom was eventually eroded by the increase in power of [[feudalism|feudal lords]] and the [[manorialism|manorial system]]. Some scholars argue, however, that anterior to the encroachment of the manorial system the ''ċeorles'' owed various services and rents to local lords and powers.

In the [[North Germanic languages|North Germanic (Scandinavian) languages]], the word {{lang|gmq|Karl}} has the same root as ''churl'' and meant originally a "free man". As "[[housecarl]]", it came back to England. In [[German language|German]], {{wikt-lang|de|Kerl}} is used to describe a somewhat rough and common man and is no longer in use as a synonym for a common soldier (''[[Potsdam Giants|die langen Kerls]]''<ref>The correct (modern) plural of {{lang|de|Kerl}} being {{lang|de|Kerle}}</ref> of King [[Frederick William I of Prussia]]). [[Ríg (Norse god)|''Rígsþula'']], a poem in the [[Poetic Edda]], explains the [[social class]]es as originating from the three sons of Ríg: [[Thrall]], Karl and [[Earl]] ({{lang|non|Þræl}}, {{lang|non|Karl}} and {{lang|non|Jarl}}). This story has been interpreted in the context of the proposed [[trifunctional hypothesis]] of [[Proto-Indo-European society]].

Cognates to the word {{lang|ang|ceorle}} are frequently found in place names, throughout the [[English-speaking world|Anglophone]] world, in towns such as [[Carlton (disambiguation)#Places|Carlton]] and [[Charlton (disambiguation)#Places|Charlton]], meaning "the farmstead of the churls".<ref>{{cite book|title=Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names|author=A.D. Mills|publisher=Oxford University Press|ISBN=978-0-19-852758-9}}</ref> Names such as [[Carl (name)|Carl]] and [[Charles]] are derived from [[cognates]] of ''churl'' or ''ċeorle''.

While the word ''churl'' went down in the social scale, the first name derived from the same etymological source ("Karl" in German, "Charles" in French and English, "[[Carlos (given name)|Carlos]]" in Spanish, Karel in Dutch, etc.) remained prestigious enough to be used frequently by many European royal families—owing originally to the fame of [[Charlemagne]], to which was added that of later illustrious kings and emperors of the same name. The [[Polish language|Polish]] word for "king", {{wikt-lang|pl|Król}}, is also derived from the same origin.

In her tragedy Ethwald (Part II), [[Joanna Baillie]] uses the spelling ''cairl'', and in Act 2, Scene II, the characters, First Cairl, Second Cairl and Third Cairl are found searching amongst the dead upon a battle field. This play is set in [[Mercia]].

==Current use==
In most [[Germanic languages]] this word never took on the English meaning of "lowly peasant" and retains its original meaning of "fellow, guy"; {{abbr|cf.|compare with}} {{langx|fy|keardel}}, archaic {{lang|fy|tsjerl}}, {{lang|fy|tsjirl}}, {{langx|nl|kerel}}, {{langx|nds|Kerl}} (also borrowed into [[German language|German]]), {{langx|sv|karl}}, {{langx|fo|kallur}} and so on.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

==See also==
*[[Carlin stone]]
*[[Ceorl (disambiguation)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}<!--added above categories/infobox footers by script-assisted edit-->

[[Category:Anglo-Saxon society]]
[[Category:Feudalism]]