Other forms: churls
A churl is a rude ill-bred person, in old use. An ill-mannered churl, called him a churl, a churl at the table.
In Old English a ceorl was a free man ranking below a thegn, which is a neutral social term, and the word slid into an insult as the powerful described those beneath them. Churlish is the surviving form.
1nounchurlA rude ill-bred person, in old use.
“Only a churl would refuse to shake hands after such a fair game.”
churl is a person.
Old English ceorl means a free man of the lowest rank, and the word slid into an insult.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵerh₂- — to grow old; to mature
Proto-Germanic
*karilaz — elder; man
Proto-West Germanic
*kerl
Old English
ċeorl — freeman ranking below a þegn but above a thrall; commoner, peasant; countryman, husbandman; man; husband
English, today
churl
enm-wmi churle (“person not of the nobility or clergy; serf, servant, simpleton, fellow”), from Old English ċeorl (“freeman ranking below a þegn but above a thrall; commoner, peasant; countryman, husbandman; man; husband”), from Proto-West Germanic kerl, from Proto-Germanic karilaz (“elder; man”), from Proto-Indo-European ǵerh₂- (“to grow old; to mature”). a doublet of carl//carle and ceorl and karl. Sense 2.1 (“rough, surly, ill-bred person”) is probably an extension of sense 1 (“free peasant of the lowest rank; person without royal or noble status; bondman, serf”) and sense 2.2 (“countryman, peasant, rustic”). Sense 2.3 (“person who is stingy”) was influenced by Nabal, who is described in the King James Version of the Bible as “churlish and evil in his doings”; when Nabal, a rich man, is asked to give provisions to David’s men, he replies, “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?” (1 Samuel 25:3 and 10–11; spelling modernized). 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA