Churlish means rude and ungracious. A churlish response, it seems churlish to refuse, churlish of him.
The commonest use is the polite formula that it would be churlish to refuse, which is how anybody accepts a second drink. The churl behind it was a peasant, so the word carries the same class history as villain.
1adjectivechurlishRude and ungracious.
“It seemed churlish to complain about the small room when the stay was free.”
churlish is a quality.
Old English ceorlisc means of a churl, a peasant or free man of the lowest rank.
Middle English
cherlisch
English, today
churlish
Built from
From Middle English cherlisch. From Middle English cherlisch, cherlissh, from late Old English ċeorlisċ, ċierlisċ (“of or pertaining to churls”), equivalent to churl + -ish. ceorlish.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA