different between peasant vs yeoman

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

Etymology

From Middle English yoman, yeman, from Old English *??amann (compare Old Frisian g?man (“villager”), Middle Dutch goymann (“arbiter”)), compound of ??, ??a (“district, region”) (in æl??, S?þri??a), from Proto-Germanic *gawj? (compare West Frisian gea, goa, Dutch gouw, German Gau) + mann (“man”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?j??.m?n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?jo?.m?n/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /?ji?.m?n/
• Rhymes: -??m?n

Noun

yeoman (plural yeomen)

1. (Britain) An official providing honorable service in a royal or high noble household, ranking between a squire and a page. Especially, a Yeoman of the Guard, a member of a ceremonial bodyguard to the UK monarch (not to be confused with a Yeoman Warder).
2. (US) A dependable, diligent, or loyal worker or someone who does a great service.
3. (historical) A former class of small freeholders who farm their own land; a commoner of good standing.
4. A subordinate, deputy, aide, or assistant.
5. A Yeoman Warder.
6. A clerk in the US Navy, and US Coast Guard.
7. (nautical) In a vessel of war, the person in charge of the storeroom.
8. A member of the Yeomanry Cavalry, officially chartered in 1794 originating around the 1760s.
9. A member of the Imperial Yeomanry, officially created in 1890s and renamed in 1907.
10. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Cirrochroa, of Asia and Australasia.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• yeoman on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Yeoman in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

References

French

Noun

yeoman m (plural yeomans)

1. yeoman

Derived terms

• yeomanerie