A freeman of the lowest rank in Anglo-Saxon England, ranking above a slave but below a noble or thane.
From Old English ceorl or churl, related to Proto-Germanic karlaz meaning 'man' or 'fellow.' The word survived into Middle English as 'churl,' which developed the sense of a rude or uncouth person as the class declined in status.
The ceorl is one of history's fascinating status-dropouts—in early Anglo-Saxon times, ceorls were respectable free farmers, but by the Norman Conquest their descendants had become 'churls,' a word that now just means rude person. Language itself recorded their social decline!
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