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The word for today is…
churlish (adj) – 1. Having a bad disposition; surly: “as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear” (Shakespeare).
- (Archaic) Of, like, or befitting a churl; boorish or vulgar.
- (Archaic) Difficult to work with; intractable. Used as of soil.
Source : The Free Dictionary
Etymology : It is easy to understand how churlish has come to mean “vulgar,” “surly,” and “intractable”—if you know your English history. In Anglo-Saxon England, a churl, or ceorl, was a freeman of the lowest rank who owned and cultivated a small farm. He had certain rights and had upward mobility to rise to the rank of thane. After the Norman Conquest, however, many churls became serfs, a change in status that meant losing not just social mobility but geographical mobility as well. The lowest rungs of a social system often serve as inspiration for a language’s pejoratives, and churl eventually came to be used as a term for a rude, ill-bred person.
