# When did the term 'peasant' first come into use to describe 'villeins'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 21, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855 "2019-04-21T14:38:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/1 "2019-04-21T14:38:59Z")
Hi When did the term ‘peasant’ first come into use to describe ‘villeins’? Who use it first and where? It certainly wasn’t during the Middle Ages. Was it the 1700’s or later? I look forward to your feedback. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/2 "2019-04-21T14:47:21Z")
Etymonline reports that it’s much older, early 1400s, apparently. > [@](#): > > villein (n.) > early 14c., vileyn, spelling variant of villain in its reference to a feudal class of half-free peasants. It tends to keep the literal, historical sense of the word and let the pejorative meanings go with villain; Century Dictionary writes that “the forms villain, villein, etc., are historically one, and the attempt to differentiate them in meaning is idle,” but Fowler finds this “a useful piece of differentiation.” Related: Villeinage. > > peasant (n.) > early 15c., from Anglo-French paisant (mid-14c.), Old French paisent “local inhabitant” (12c., Modern French paysan), earlier paisenc, from pais “country, region” ( from Latin pagus; see pagan) + Frankish suffix -enc “-ing.” ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2019, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/3 "2019-04-21T14:55:59Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Etymonline reports that it’s much older, early 1400s, apparently. Thanks Exapno Mapcase. The term may have been coined in the 1400s but the mainstream usage of ‘peasant’ according to my reading was much later. Unfortunately I have not come across any precise dating for that general usage. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/4 "2019-04-21T14:59:13Z")
You could also throw in bondsman, slave, servant, menial, thrall, helot, ceorl; vassal, and liegeman. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/5 "2019-04-21T14:59:58Z")
> [@davidmich](#): > > Thanks Exapno Mapcase. The term may have been coined in the 1400s but the mainstream usage of ‘peasant’ according to my reading was much later. Unfortunately I have not come across any precise dating for that general usage. I should have stated that I am referring to its mainstream usage in medieval England. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/6 "2019-04-21T17:24:34Z")
The OED gives the earliest use in Anglo-French in 1341: “Vostre tenant… resceit la rente par mayne des paisanz et villeyns.” Peasants and villeins were different even in the earliest usage. ‘Villein’ indicated a specific legal relationship to an overlord, different from that of serfs, cottars, yeomen, etc. ‘Peasant’ was a general term for people who worked the land. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2019, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/7 "2019-04-22T08:57:21Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > The OED gives the earliest use in Anglo-French in 1341: > > “Vostre tenant… resceit la rente par mayne des paisanz et villeyns.” > > Peasants and villeins were different even in the earliest usage. ‘Villein’ indicated a specific legal relationship to an overlord, different from that of serfs, cottars, yeomen, etc. ‘Peasant’ was a general term for people who worked the land. Thanks GreenWyvern Was the Peasants’ Revolt, also called Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, (1381 called the “Peasants’ Revolt” by the earliest sources or perhaps “Rustick Revolt”?, I see many references online to the 15th century usage of ‘peasant’ but no details as to how it was used. Did the 15th century English people use the word ‘peasant’ or some variation of it.? ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2019, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/8 "2019-04-22T14:55:15Z")
According to the OED, the only definition with 15th century citations is “One who live in the country and works on the land, either as a small farmer or as a labourer; the name is also applied to any rustic of the working classes; a country man, a rustic”. It adds this interesting note: “In early use, properly only of foreign countries; often connoting the lowest rank, antithetical to _noble_; also to _prince_.” ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2019, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/9 "2019-04-22T15:29:22Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > According to the OED, the only definition with 15th century citations is “One who live in the country and works on the land, either as a small farmer or as a labourer; the name is also applied to any rustic of the working classes; a country man, a rustic”. It adds this interesting note: “In early use, properly only of foreign countries; often connoting the lowest rank, antithetical to _noble_; also to _prince_.” Thanks markn+. I presume that by the 15th century the use of ‘peasant’ was was already being used in a pejorative sense. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/10 "2019-04-22T18:54:39Z")
I wouldn’t make that presumption. That’s a different sense of the word, which the OED defines as “a term of abuse (cf. _villain_): Low fellow, rascal” and its first citation for that sense is c.1550. There are plenty of uses in that sense in Shakespeare, by the late 16th century. But as far as I can see (after investigating this for a full 5 minutes), all the 15th century uses are in the specific sense of a farmer or laborer. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/11 "2019-04-23T07:51:07Z")
> [@davidmich](#): > > Thanks GreenWyvern > Was the Peasants’ Revolt, also called Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, (1381 called the “Peasants’ Revolt” by the earliest sources or perhaps “Rustick Revolt”? IIRC, the contemporary Anonimalle Chronicle didn’t use the word peasant, but does use villein. However, I don’t think the Great Rising necessarily had a proper name for a while. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-term-peasant-first-come-into-use-to-describe-villeins/832855/12 "2019-04-23T16:01:53Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > IIRC, the contemporary Anonimalle Chronicle didn’t use the word peasant, but does use villein. However, I don’t think the Great Rising necessarily had a proper name for a while. Thanks Mr. Dibble, I couldn’t find any medieval texts using the word: p-e-a-s-a-n-t. It’s not in any medieval/Middle English glossary I have looked at.