different between peasant vs commoner

English

Etymology

From Late Middle English paissaunt, from Anglo-Norman paisant, from Middle French païsant (“païsant”), from Old French païsan (“countryman, peasant”), from païs (“country”), from Late Latin p?g?nsis (“inhabitant of a district”), from Latin p?gus (“district”) + Old French -enc (“member of”), from Frankish -inc, -ing "-ing". More at -ing. Doublet of paisano.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?z?nt/
• Rhymes: -?z?nt

Noun

peasant (plural peasants)

1. A member of the lowly social class that toils on the land, constituted by small farmers and tenants, sharecroppers, farmhands and other laborers on the land where they form the main labor force in agriculture and horticulture.
2. A country person.
3. (derogatory) An uncouth, crude or ill-bred person.
4. (strategy games) A worker unit.

Synonyms

• (lowly social class) peon, serf
• churl
• (country person) rustic, villager
• (crude person) boor

Derived terms

• peasantry

Translations

Further reading

• "peasant" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 231.

Anagrams

• Patanes, Pestana, Tapanes, anapest, patenas

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?m?n?(?)/

Etymology 1

common +? -er (“comparative suffix”)

Adjective

commoner

1. comparative form of common: more common

Usage notes

• The potential for confusion with use of the noun as an adjective, especially in the UK, makes this form less desirable. It is much less commonly used than "more common".

Etymology 2

From Middle English comoner, comyner, cumuner, equivalent to common +? -er.

Noun

commoner (plural commoners)

1. A member of the common people who holds no title or rank.
2. (Britain) Someone who is not of noble rank.
   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England

     All below them [the peers], even their children, were commoners, and in the eye of the law equal to each other.

3. (Britain, Oxbridge slang) An undergraduate who does not hold either a scholarship or an exhibition.
4. (obsolete, Britain, Oxford University) A student who is not dependent on any foundation for support, but pays all university charges; at Cambridge called a pensioner.
5. Someone holding common rights because of residence or land ownership in a particular manor, especially rights on common land.
6. (obsolete) One sharing with another in anything.
7. (obsolete) A prostitute.

Synonyms

• (member of the common people): See Thesaurus:commoner
• (prostitute): See Thesaurus:prostitute

Translations