peasant
part of speech
noun (a peasant, peasants); adjective (peasant farmers)
meaning for a pupil
1) A peasant was a poor farmer or farm worker in the past, especially in the Middle Ages, who worked a small piece of land and often had to give part of the crops to a lord. tree →
2) In some countries today, peasant means a farmer on a small farm who grows food mostly for the family. tree →
3) (rude, insult) Calling someone a peasant means they are uneducated or have bad manners; it is unkind. tree →
sense in the lessons
In history lessons peasants appear in the feudal system: king, barons, knights, peasants (also called serfs or villeins); they lived in small houses with animals, paid taxes, and in the Peasants' Revolt they rose up against unfair taxes. In fairy tales, a clever peasant often tricks a king. In playground talk, «peasant» is used as a snobby insult — not kind. Phrases: «the Peasants' Revolt», «peasant farmers», «peasant life».
examples
- Most people in medieval England were peasants. tree →
- The peasants worked in the lord's fields for three days a week. tree →
- In the Peasants' Revolt, peasants marched on London. tree →
- The peasant's cottage had one room shared with a cow. tree →
- In the fairy tale, a poor peasant married the princess. tree →
- «You peasant!» he said — which was very rude. tree →
- Peasant farmers in many countries still grow their own food. tree →
- "I've no money," said the peasant. tree →
note
Plural «peasants». Spelling: peas-ant, but not related to peas. Trap: «pheasant» (with ph) is a bird; «pleasant» (with l) means nice. In history, a «serf» was a peasant who was not free to leave the land.
In the corpora
- After the plague so many workers had died that survivors could ask for higher pay, and many peasants won more freedom.
- Most Ukrainian peasants in the Russian Empire were serfs until 1861; in Austrian Galicia serfdom ended in 1848.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «peasant» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.