the.com/peasant
the original everyman who fed empires and occasionally toppled them with pitchforks
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.
- word root
- from Latin pagus, meaning rural district or village
- the majority
- comprised 80 to 90 percent of medieval populations
- revolt history
- England's 1381 uprising briefly seized London
- three estates
- medieval society's lowest official rank, those who labored
- diet reality
- ate more vegetables and grains than feasting nobles
french peasants 1789 — stormed the bastille and triggered the french revolution during widespread famine
german peasants 1525 — 100,000+ revolted against feudal lords in the largest popular uprising of the holy roman empire
russian mir communes — self-governing peasant village collectives that controlled russian agriculture until 1917