Forms: 1 ceorl, 2–3 cheorl, 2–5 cherl, (3 chærle, 4–5 cherle, 5 cheerl, cherll(e, chirl, cherelle, cherld, cherol), 3–7 chorle, 4–7 churle (6 churryll), 5– churl. [OE. ceorl:—WGer. kerl (Fris. tzerl, MDu. kerel, kerle, Du. kerel, MLG. kerle, MG. kerl(e, Ger. kerl, pointing to OTeut. types *kerlo-z, *kerlon-, beside *karlo-z, *karlon-, which gave ON. karl, OHG. charl, charlo: see CARL and CHARL.]
1. A male human being, a man; esp. ‘man’ as correlative to ‘wife,’ husband. (In ME. mingled with other senses.)
a. 800. Corp. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 54. Uxorius, ceorl.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John iv. 17. Wel þu cwæde þæt þu næfst ceorl, witodlice þu hæf[de]st fif ceorlas [1160 Hatton cheorles], and se ðe ðu nu hæfst nis ðin ceorl.
c. 1200. Ormin, 14788. Alde and ȝunge, And were and wif, and cherl and child.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 39. Þe croh eorneð iþe fur & þe cheorl chideð.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2715. Moyses … hente ðe cherl wið hise wond.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, I. 1024. Thow hast ful grete care, Lest the cherl may fal out of the Mone.
2. In the OE. constitution: A man simply, without rank; a member of the third or lowest rank of freemen. (Only OE. except Hist.)
a. 1000. Law Ælfred, in Thorpe, Laws, I. 64 B. Swa we eac settaþ be eallum hadum, ʓe ceorle ʓe eorle.
a. 1000. in Thorpe, Laws, I. 182 (Bosw.). Twelfhyndes mannes aþ forstent vi ceorla aþ.
c. 1205. Lay., 11205. Ærst he sloh þæ eorles and þrallede þæ chærles.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 453. The Churle or Yeoman.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 284 (1811), 296. The Saxons … made three degrees of free-men; to wit.—an earl, a thane, and a churl.
1861. Pearson, Early & Mid. Ages Eng., 72. The freeman proper, or ceorl, was the man who preferred to settle on his share of the land won in war.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., V. xxii. 27. Villanus, a word which was already beginning to bear a meaning much lower than that of the Old-English churl which it translates.
b. In a looser and more general application, this sense has come down to modern times, esp. as the antithesis of king, noble, gentle; but often mingled with other senses.
1382. Wyclif, Pref. Ep., iv. 65. Chirl Petre, and cherl Joon, of whom either myȝt seyn, and if I be vnwise in word, neuerthelater not in kunnyng.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pers. T., ¶ 687. As wel may the cherl be saved as the lord.
c. 1480. Childrenes Bk., 34, in Babees Bk. (1868), 18. Pyke not þyne Eris ne thy nostrellis; If þou do, men wolle sey þou come of cherlis.
1612. Shelton, Quix., I. III. i. 111. Rich or poor, Gentleman or Churl.
1845. Hirst, Poems, 47. Not the churl I seem, But one of lofty birth.
1877. Morley, Carlyle, Crit. Misc. Ser. I. (1878), 198. [He] warns all whom it concerns, from King to churl.
† 3. A tenant in pure villeinage; a serf, a bondman. (The position to which most of the OE. ceorlas were reduced after the Norman conquest.)
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 86. [He] seið to þe knihte þet robbeð his poure men … Uor euere me schal þene cheorl pilken and peolien.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 2136 (Fairf.). Of Cham chorle [v.r. thrall] come ful riȝt.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XI. 121. For may no cherle chartre make ne his catel selle With-outen leue of his lorde.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 239. A cherle [servus] was wiþ hym in his chare.
c. 1430. Lydg., Chorle & Byrde (1818), 17. A chorles chorle is alway woo be goon.
1552. Huloet, Churle or villayne regardant, colonarius.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (1862), 535/1. Old men, women, children, and hyndes (which they call churles).
1607. Davies, 1st Let. Earl Salisb., in Hist. Tracts (1787), 255. He [Mr. Guyre] had almost a ballibetagh of land, which he manured with his own churles.
4. A countryman, peasant, rustic, boor. (Now usually tinged with other senses.)
c. 1205. Lay., 4260. Ælc cheorl [c. 1275 man] eæt his sulche.
1382. Wyclif, Wisd. xvii. 16. If forsothe a cherl who were, or a shepperde.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 72. Cherelle or charle, rusticus.
1548. Hall, Chron. (1809), 675. The Peisants or Chorles of the contrey.
1579. E. K., Gloss., in Spenser, Sheph. Cal., July. Kerne, a Churle or Farmer.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 335. A churl, or countrey carl: Rusticus.
1783. Crabbe, Village, II. Wks. 1834, II. 92. See the stout churl, in drunken fury great.
1832. Tennyson, Lady Shalott, II. ii. The surly village-churls.
5. Used as a term of disparagement or contempt; base fellow, villain. In modern times usually: Rude low-bred fellow.
c. 1300. Havelok, 682. Go hom swiþe, fule drit, cherl; Go heþen.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 1736 (Trin.). Wiþ score alle him vnswerde And seide whi is þis cherle [v.r. carl] ferde.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s Prol., 460. Metillius, the foule cherl, the swyn.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., clxxxvii. 165. He called the noble Erle and gentil Thomas of lancastre Cherle.
1536. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 138. Come forth … horson gorbelled churryll.
1614. T. Adams, Devil’s Banquet, 194. The miserable Churle … not vouchsafeing to answere.
1793. Burns, Meg o’ the Mill. She’s left the guid fellow and ta’en the churl.
1821. Byron, Sardan., I. ii. (1868), 351. Since … this churl has check’d Thy gentle spirit, go.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess. Spir. Laws, Wks. (Bohn), I. 62. Graces … which are lost upon the eye of a churl.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil (1863), 244. ‘Unmannerly churl!’ exclaimed Sybil.
1874. Ruskin, Fors Clav., IV. 102. Sentiments which in all ages have distinguished the gentleman from the churl.
6. spec. One who is sordid, ‘hard,’ or stingy in money-matters; a niggard; a miser. Cf. CARL.
[The application of churlish to Nabal in the Bible has app. done much to make this the prevalent modern sense.]
1535. Coverdale, Isa. xxxii. 5. Then shal the nygarde be no more called gentle, ner the churle lyberall.
1570. Levins, Manip., 191. A churle, ingratus, parcus.
a. 1591. H. Smith, 3 Serm. (1604), 17. When the Churles barnes were full, hee bade his soule take rest.
1598. Deloney, Jacke Newb. i. (1619). Was not at any time found a churle of his purse.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1778), I. 36. When a few words will rescue misery out of her distress, I hate the man who can be a churl of them.
1885. Miss Braddon, Wyllard’s Weird, II. i. 4. Your Parisian landlord is a churl and a niggard.
7. Comb. a. as churl-king, -mind, -saving.
1595. Polimanteia (1881), 57. More courteous then the churle-sauing Abigal.
1861. Pearson, Early & Mid. Ages Eng., 152. Eadwig … who was called contemptuously the churl-king, because only the people were for him.
1874. Ruskin, Fors, IV. 103. The conception … seems ludicrous to the impotent churl mind.
b. Churl’s, in plant names: as churl’s cress, mustard, applied by Lyte to a cruciferous plant, prob. Lepidium campestre; churl’s head, Knapweed or Hardheads (Centaurea nigra); churl’s treacle, a species of garlic (Allium sativum).
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, V. lxii. 628. The second kind [of Thlaspi] is called … in high Douche Baurn senff or Baurn kress … that is to say … Churles Cresse. Ibid. I thinke it best to call [thlaspi] churles mustard.
† Churl a. Obs. (or ? attrib.) Churlish.
1864. Webster cites Ford.
