means A poor farmer or agricultural laborer of low social rank, especially one tied to the land in pre-industrial or feudal society.

from From Old French 'paisant,' literally 'one of the country,' built on 'pais' (country, region) — which traces back to Latin 'pagus,' a rural district or village. That same 'pagus' gives us 'pagan' (originally just 'country-dweller'), so the peasant and the pagan are linguistic cousins, both children of the countryside. English borrowed the word in the late Middle Ages, and it has carried a faint whiff of condescension from the city ever since.