noun
peasant
PEZ-uhnt/ˈpeznt/
A poor rural laborer or small farmer, especially in a traditional society.
The peasant hoes a small plot beside her modest home.
Etymology
The word for country, with an inhabitant-forming ending, first denoted a local inhabitant. It came to mean a rural person of low social rank, usually someone working the land.
In context
you would be a peasant. Now, peasant doesn't mean poor necessarily, although most peasants were relatively poor by modern standards, but it means that you were a farmer. You worked the land.
More examples
- The peasants pay rent to the landowner after each harvest.
- A poor peasant grows barley to feed his family.
- The village peasants share an ox for plowing their fields.
Forms
peasant · peasants
peasantry noun — Poor rural workers considered as a group.
Similar words
- farmer
- Names someone who farms, without implying poverty or low status.
- farmhand
- Specifically an employee doing farm work, not an independent small farmer.