> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://goodoil.news/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/word-of-the-day-183/
- Published: 2019-07-31T18:15:52.000Z
- Updated: 2019-07-31T20:27:38.000Z
- Author: Peter Andersen
- Tags: General, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 04:14

The word for today is…

churlish (adj) – 1\. Having a bad disposition; surly: “as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear” (Shakespeare).

1. (Archaic) Of, like, or befitting a churl; boorish or vulgar.
2. (Archaic) Difficult to work with; intractable. Used as of soil.

Source : [The Free Dictionary](https://www.thefreedictionary.com/churlish?ref=goodoil.news)

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.