| 释义 |
▪ I. peasant, n.|ˈpɛzənt|
Forms: α. 5 paissaunt, 6 paisaunte, peisant, peysant, -aunt, pesent, -aunt, pezzant, 6–7 paysant, pesant, pezant, 6–8 paisant, 6– peasant. β. 6 paysan, -yne, peysan, 7 paisan, peasan.
[a. AF. paisant, in OF. païsent, païsant, paysant (12th c. in Godef.), mod.F. paysan (13th c. in Littré), f. païs, pays country:—L. pāgensis, sc. ager, the territory of a pāgus or canton, the country. Cf. It. paesano, Sp. païsano. The β forms here are conformed (more or less) to later Fr.
The OF. ending, -ant, -ent, is difficult. It cannot represent L. -ānus; French etymologists incline to refer païsent to an earlier païsenc, formed with the German suffix -inc, -ing.]
1. a. One who lives in the country and works on the land, either as a small farmer or as a labourer; spec. one who relies for his subsistence mainly on the produce of his own labour and that of his household, and forms part of a larger culture and society in which he is subject to the political control of outside groups; also, loosely, a rural labourer.
In early use, properly only of foreign countries; often connoting the lowest rank, antithetical to noble; also to prince. Although modern sociologists agree that a ‘peasant’ works the land, the more wealthy peasants may also be land-owners, rentiers, hirers of labour, etc., and in these capacities share interests with completely different social groups. Hence in the analysis of many rural societies divisions within the class frequently have to be made.
α [1341–2Year-bks. 16 Edw. III, Hill. No. 13 (Rolls) 65 Vostre tenant..resceit la rente par mayne des paisanz [v.rr. paysayns, paysains] et villeyns. ]1475Bk. Noblesse (Roxb.) 73 The pore comons, laborers, paissauntes of the saide duchie of Normandie. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. V 46 The comen people and peysantz of the countree assembled in greate nombre. 1576Gascoigne Steele Gl. (Arb.) 57 The Peasant he should labor for their ease. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. III. 1199/1 The pezzants about gathered themselues togither, and set vpon him and his souldiers. 1598Dallington Meth. Trav. K iv b, There is also the ‘Subiect’, that is, the poore paisant that laboureth and tilleth the fiefs. 1642Rogers Naaman 275 Heaven lies no more open to a Noble mans performances and merits, then a pezants. 1664H. More Myst. Iniq. i. xxii. 85 There being a like fear of it..in Princes and Peasants, in Gentle and simple. 1678Locke in Ld. King Life 77 In Xantonge, and several other parts of France, the paisants are much more miserable. 1761Chron. in Ann. Reg. 61/2 An address lately presented to the king of Sweden, by the speaker of the house of Peasants, assembled in diet. 1807Wordsw. Wh. Doe vii. 313 Help did she give at need, and joined The Wharfdale peasants in their prayers. 1844Disraeli Coningsby iii. iii, What can it signify..whether a man be called a labourer or a peasant? 1850H. Macfarlane tr. Marx & Engels's Manifesto of German Communist Party in Red Republican 16 Nov. 171/2 The small manufacturers, shopkeepers, proprietors, peasants, &c., all fight against the Bourgeoisie, in order to defend their position as small Capitalists. They are, therefore, not revolutionary but conservative. 1869Lecky Europ. Mor. (1877) I. i. 146 Had the Irish peasants been less chaste, they would have been more prosperous. 1878Seeley Stein I. 433 Famished drudges..who, if they cannot be called serfs, can still less be called peasants, for a peasant properly so called must have a personal interest in the land. 1926E. & C. Paul tr. Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire of L. Bonaparte vii. 137 The interests of the peasants no longer coincide, as during the reign of the first Napoleon, with the interests of the bourgeoisie, with the interests of capital. There is now a conflict of interests. The peasants, therefore, find their natural allies and leaders in the urban proletariat, whose mission it is to subvert the bourgeois order of society. 1927M. J. Olgin tr. Engels's Peasant War in Germany 18 The small peasants (bigger peasants belong to the bourgeoisie) are not homogeneous. They are either in serfdom bound to their lords and masters,..or they are tenants, whose situation is almost equal to that of the Irish. 1933E. & C. Paul tr. Stalin's Leninism II. 205 In the conditions prevailing in our country, the peasantry consists of various social groups,..the poor peasants, the middle peasants, and the kulaks. It is obvious that our attitude to these various groups cannot be identical. The poor peasant is the support of the working class, the middle peasant is the ally, the kulak is the class enemy—such is our attitude to these respective social groups. 1934Encycl. Social Sci. XII. 48/2 The term peasantry has undergone many changes in meaning in the past and is still subject to various interpretations. Common to all the shifting meanings, however, is a view of the peasant as a tiller of the soil to whom the land which he and his family work offers both a home and a living. 1938tr. Lenin's Sel. Wks. X. 223 The big peasants (Grossbauern) are the capitalist entrepreneurs in agriculture who..employ several wage workers and are connected with the ‘peasantry’ only by their low cultural level, habits of life and the manual labour they themselves perform on their farms. These constitute the largest of the bourgeois strata, and they are the..enemies of the revolutionary proletariat. 1948A. L. Kroeber Anthropol. (rev. ed.) vii. 284 Peasants are definitely rural—yet live in relation to market towns; they form a class segment of a larger population which usually contains also urban centers, sometimes metropolitan capitals. 1951Bonner & Burns tr. Marx's Theories of Surplus Value B. v. 192 In the capitalist mode of production the independent peasant or handicraftsman is sundered into two persons. As owner of the means of production he is capitalist, as worker he is his own wage worker. 1954tr. Mao Tse-tung's Sel. Wks. I. 139 The rich peasant as a rule possesses land... The exploitation the rich peasant practises is chiefly that of hired labour. Ibid., In many cases the middle peasant possesses land. The middle peasant relies wholly or mainly on his own labour as the source of his income. Ibid. 140 As a rule the poor peasant has to rent land for cultivation and, exploited by others, has to pay land rent and interest on loans and hire out a small part of his labour. 1956R. Redfield Peasant Society & Culture i. 27 Those peoples are to be included in the cluster I shall call peasants who have..this in common: their agriculture is a livelihood and a way of life, not a business for profit. 1966E. Wolf Peasants 3 Peasants..are rural cultivators whose surpluses are transferred to a dominant group of rulers that uses the surpluses both to underwrite its own standard of living and to distribute the remainder to groups in society that do not farm but must be fed for their specific goods and services in turn. 1969Internat. Social Sci. Jrnl. XXI. 286 A peasant may be at one and the same time owner, renter, share-cropper, labourer for his neighbours and seasonal hand on a near-by plantation. Each different involvement aligns him differently with his fellows and with the outside world. 1971tr. E. Feder in T. Shanin Peasants & Peasant Societies vii. 90 But while the landed elite [in Latin America] has no interest in the peasants' aspirations and keeps aloof from their world, it is still keenly aware of its obligations to keep the peasants in check and subservient. 1975J. A. Hellman tr. Stavenhagen's Social Classes in Agrarian Societies v. 65 A useful distinction is sometimes made between tribal peoples, peasants, and modern farmers... In contrast to tribal or primitive peoples, peasant societies do form part of wider economic, social, and political units.
β1511Sir R. Guylforde Pilgr. (Camden) 64 The herde of the peysans and suche as they mette that alle thre Galeys were reiecte. 1523Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) I. 39 Victuaylys..that..by the diligence of the paysans myght be convaide to the next strong holdys. 1550J. Coke Eng. & Fr. Heralds §66 (1877) 79 We knowe your commons be vylaynes paysynes, not able to abyde the countenaunce of an Englysheman. 1642Howell Twelve Treat. (1661) 5 In France you shall see the poor Asinin Peasan half weary of his life. a1656Ussher Ann. (1658) 91 A few miserable boors, or paisans. 1690Ld. Lansdowne Brit. Enchanters (1779) 177 A rural dance of Païsans. 1801C. Wilmot Let. 5 Dec. in Irish Peer (1920) 9 We met a young Paysan Savant. 1872Young Englishwoman Oct. 542/1 The paysan blouse, so much in fashion now, has brought into favour the plain broad stitched hem. 1891E. Dowson Let. 1 July (1967) 206 This is the queerest little auberge imaginable, quite paysan, but full of excellent folk. 1949W. Stevens Let. 13 Oct. (1967) 650, I shall feel sorry about paysans and tepid by the time this reaches you.
†b. With various inferential connotations: = Serf, villein; also boor, clown. Obs.
1550Latimer Last Serm. bef. Edw. VI ⁋3 They oppressed the poore. They made them slaues, pesauntes, villains and bondmen vnto them. 1570Levins Manip. 25/16 A Pesant, verna, seruus. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 344 Defaced by a companie of bussardly pezantes. 1594Nashe Unfort. Trav. Wks. (Grosart) V. 19 A number of pesants and varlets. 1613R. Cawdrey Table Alph. (ed. 3), Pesant, clowne.
c. Hence, as a term of abuse (cf. villain): Low fellow, rascal. Now slang, usu. implying ignorance, stupidity, or boorishness. Cf. farmer2 7 c.
c1550Disc. Common Weal Eng. (1893) 94 The subiectes of france, in reproche of whome we call them paisantes. 1591Troub. Raigne K. John (1611) 28 Base heardgroom, coward, peasant, worse than a threshing slaue. 1598Shakes. Merry W. ii. ii. 294, I will predominate ouer the pezant, and thou shalt lye with his wife. 1601R. Yarington Two Lament. Traj. iii. ii, Thou weathercocke of mutabilitie, White-livered Paisant. 1943Baker Dict. Austral. Slang (ed. 3) 58 Peasant, an ordinary rank. (R.A.A.F. slang.) 1947S. Bellow Victim i. 10 She showed such a dread of hospitals that at last he exclaimed, ‘Don't be such a peasant, Elena!’ 1957Sunday Mail (Glasgow) 10 Feb. 11 Peasant—an older person who does not..understand the goings-on of teenagers. 1958Listener 14 Aug. 247/3 People who dress conventionally are called [by teddy-boys] ‘peasants’. 1961G. Smith Business of Loving v. 161 Laura took me out riding... I'm a complete peasant in this, but she's an expert. 1964G. Lyall Most Dangerous Game xix. 146 Alone? Of course I'm not alone, you—you peasant. D' you think I drive myself? 1966H. Kemelman Saturday the Rabbi went Hungry (1967) iii. 27 Well, let the big boys worry, I'm just one of the peasants.
2. attrib.
a. Appositive, That is a peasant, as peasant-boy, peasant-farmer, peasant girl, peasant-novelist, peasant owner, peasant-poet, peasant-proprietor, peasant-soldier, peasant tenant, peasant woman, peasant-worker; † formerly, sometimes passing into adj.: Of peasant nature, base. Also derivatives of these, as peasant, farming, peasant proprietorship, peasant-proprietary adj.
1852Dickens Bleak Ho. xxxi. 307 Mr. Skimpole..sang one [sc. a ballad] about a *Peasant boy. 1862H. Marryat Year in Sweden II. 391 A peasant-boy loved the daughter of a rich Odalbonde.
1848Mill Pol. Econ. I. i. iv. 72 When a *peasant farmer or proprietor lives on the produce of his land. 1896Daily Tel. 5 Feb. 6/7 This hardy race of peasant-farmers. 1906Daily Chron. 21 Mar. 6/6 Of peasant-farmer stock, the elder Bunsen..became tutor in an English family. 1978R. Mitchison Life in Scotland iii. 47 If a man had failed as a peasant farmer there might well be no work for him as a farm labourer.
1936tr. Lenin's Sel. Wks. III. 183 Landlord farming evolves in a capitalist way... *Peasant farming also evolves in a capitalist way and gives rise to a rural bourgeoisie and a rural proletariat. 1952Oxf. Jun. Encycl. VI. 135/2 Peasant farming is the general rule in France, Germany, the countries of northern Europe, and all through central Europe, as well as in the greater part of Asia.
1883C. M. Yonge Stray Pearls I. ix. 99 She kept the cows and knitted like a *peasant girl. 1915D. H. Lawrence Rainbow x. 250 Peasant-girls with wreaths of blue flowers in their hair. 1976Scott & Koski Walk-In (1977) xix. 124 The second [woman] giggled like some empty-headed peasant girl.
1702Rowe Tamerl. iv. i. 1621 The *Peasant-Hind, begot and born to Slavery.
c1550Crowley Way to Wealth B iij b, The pore men (whom ye cal *paisaunte knaues) haue deserued more then you can deuise to laie vpon them.
1907Westm. Gaz. 21 Nov. 12/2 A new book by Peter Rosegger, the Styrian *peasant-novelist,..will be published on November 25.
1951D. Mitrany Marx against Peasant xii. 201 In both countries [sc. France and Italy] the Communists have made great efforts to win influence in the countryside, especially among landless labourers and peasant tenants, who themselves hope to become *peasant owners. 1974J. White tr. Poulantzas's Fascism & Dictatorship vi. i. 275 The small peasant owners are the ‘rural petty bourgeoisie’ par excellence.
1857Bagehot Coll. Wks. (1965) II. 24 The eager *peasant-poet was at fault in the..refinements of the..drawing-room.
1903Westm. Gaz. 25 Mar. 2/1 The *peasant-proprietary clauses did not work; rackrenting continued, evictions increased.
1794A. Young Trav. France (ed. 2) I. xix. 542 Caussade.—This country is full of *peasant proprietors of land. 1899G. B. Shaw Let. c 23–24 Dec. (1972) II. 121 You have to deal with a war [sc. the Boer war] declared by a peasant-proprietor State. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia VI. 1064/2 Indispensable though his [sc. the local craftsman's] services may be, they do not give him equality with his peasant-proprietor neighbours.
1878Jevons Primer Pol. Econ. x. 88 One of the best modes of holding land..is..*peasant proprietorship. 1960R. K. Webb Harriet Martineau xi. 338 The abuses of peasant proprietorship in France. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia VI. 256/1 In agriculture, peasant proprietorship or large private estates—particularly for export products—remained the general rule [in developing non-Communist countries].
1602Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 576 Oh what a Rogue and *Pesant slaue am I.
1966Sociol. Rev. XIV. 21 By cultural intercourse and intermixture, if not by indoctrination, the *peasant-soldier is taught to think in wide national, and not village-limited terms. 1978D. Bloodworth Crosstalk xvi. 130 Wang, a peasant soldier..cunning in detail..but devoid of broad perception.
1951*Peasant tenant [see peasant owner above].
1856Dickens Dorrit (1857) ii. i. 323 The child carried in a sling by the laden *peasant woman..was quieted with picked-up grapes. 1891Hardy Tess II. v. xxv. 209 You are an unapprehending peasant woman. 1977G. Butler Brides of Friedberg vi. 155 In the woods..a group of peasant women were gathering wood.
1962E. Snow Other Side of River: Red China Today (1963) xviii. 134 Another *peasant-worker dictatorship was proclaimed as a local soviet on November 18 in an area far removed from Tsalin. 1972H. C. Stevens tr. Galeski's Basic Concepts Rural Sociol. vii. 174 The most numerous social categories in the Polish village today are (1) peasant owners of family farms, and (2) the highly diversified category of ‘peasant-workers’, i.e. families living in the village and..combining work on a farm with regular employment outside the village.
b. Of or pertaining to a peasant or peasants, as peasant art, peasant class, peasant community, peasant family, peasant group, peasant league, peasant mind, peasant revolution, peasant society, peasant style; peasant economy, an economy in which the family is the basic unit of production.
1934A. Huxley Beyond Mexique Bay 197 It is a typical semi-sophisticated *peasant art. 1961L. G. G. Ramsey Connoisseur New Guide Antique Eng. Pott., Porc. & Glass 72 The simple vigour and ingenuousness of a ‘peasant’ art.
1866Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 379/1 Communal government is the fundamental principle of all the rights of the *peasant class. 1954B. & R. North tr. Duverger's Pol. Parties ii. i. 265 It [sc. the Communist party in the Soviet Union] liquidated the ‘Kulaks’ and the land-owning middle class, and for a long time it gave the working class of the towns preponderance over a peasant class that was actually more numerous. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia VIII. 1164/2 The [European feudal] aristocrats considered both their own and the peasant class to be permanent, God-given arrangements of hereditary status.
1951R. Firth Elem. Social Organiz. v. 166 In various *peasant communities in parts of Africa..new art sanctions have been provided in modern workshops. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia VIII. 1164/1 In Africa, scattered peasant communities occur in the upland areas of the Mediterranean shore.
c1820S. Rogers Italy, Arguà 34 Where in his *peasant-dress he loved to sit.
1951R. Firth Elem. Social Organiz. iii. 87 The term peasant has primarily an economic referent. By a *peasant economy one means a system of small-scale producers, with a simple technology and equipment, often relying primarily for their subsistence on what they themselves produce. 1966D. Thorner et al. A. V. Chayanov on Theory of Peasant Econ. p. v, The most sophisticated and best documented studies of the theory and problems of peasant economy in the half-century from 1880 to 1930 were written by Russians. 1975J. A. Hellman tr. Stavenhagen's Social Classes in Agrarian Societies v. 65 Peasant economy tends towards self-sufficiency and the household is the main unit for production and consumption, based on the intensive use of family labor.
1926E. & C. Paul tr. Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire of L. Bonaparte vii. 133 In so far as millions of families live in economic circumstances which distinguish their mode of life, their interests, and their culture, from those of other classes, and make them hostile to other classes, these *peasant families form a class. But in so far as the tie between the peasants is merely one of propinquity, and..the identity of their interests has failed to find expression in a community..or in a political organization, these peasant families do not form a class. 1974tr. Sniec̆kus's Soviet Lithuania 75 Inefficient, semi-natural farms, unbearable tax burdens, and constant anxiety over the future—such was the lot of many, many peasant families.
1934Encycl. Social Sci. XII. 52/2 Even within a single country such as Germany local differences—physiographic, economic, historical—make for a very considerable variation among *peasant groups.
1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia III. 151/1 Through illegal *peasant leagues, founded in the late 1950s, and legitimate rural unions, which were authorized in 1962, many [Brazilian] peasants were able for the first time to make their needs known to the political leaders. 1975New Left Rev. Nov.–Dec. 65 Their peasant leagues performed well in the clerical dominated countryside.
1911J. London Let. 8 Jan. (1966) 330 Charmian has no *peasant-mind. 1941Wyndham Lewis Let. 22 Nov. (1963) 310 The stuffy conservatism of the land-locked peasant-mind.
1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 171 The Tuscan *peasant-plays still performed in various parts of the province.
1974M. B. Brown Econ. of Imperialism xiii. 327 We could still see bourgeois and *peasant revolutions which fall far short of socialism.
1949E. Coxhead Wind in West vii. 176 Hermia..would frequently deplore the Fascist trend latent in *peasant societies. 1964Gould & Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 490/2 The term peasant society has long referred to Europe, changing in meaning as the industrial revolution has brought about changes in European life. Usage of the term..has recently been extended to native populations of much of the world, especially as former primitive societies have come to resemble the old European peasantry. 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VII. 823/3 In peasant society ultimate control of the means of production is usually not in the hands of the primary producers.
1952G. Bemrose 19th Cent. Eng. Pott. & Porc. vi. 31 A good deal of our unlettered art, especially the so-called *peasant style, appears to lie dormant in our racial consciousness. 1973Times 24 Aug. 2/2 She was wearing a cream-coloured peasant-style blouse with blue smocking at the neck and cuffs.
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV Induct. 33 This haue I rumour'd through the *peasant-Townes.
1813W. S. Walker Poems 84 Recent from toil, the weary *peasant-train Reclined their languid limbs along the plain.
c. In crafts, fashion, etc.: in the style of articles produced by peasants or of clothes worn by them, as peasant blouse, peasant dress, peasant skirt, peasant sleeve, peasant tapestry, peasant weave.
1953‘T. Sturgeon’ More than Human iii. 167 Janie in a *peasant blouse, with a straight spear of morning sunlight bent and moulded to her bare shoulder. 1963‘E. McBain’ Ten plus One (1964) xii. 137 She wore one of these very low-cut peasant blouses.
1970New Yorker 15 Sept. 1 (Advt.), The cultivated *peasant dress is news.
1960C. W. Cunnington et al. Dict. Eng. Costume 158/1 *Peasant skirt. 1885. A full round tennis skirt made with 2 or 3 wide tucks and a fall of lace. 1965‘M. Neville’ Ladies in Dark viii. 74 She was wearing a peasant skirt and blouse.
1911Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 8 Apr. 20/2 (Advt.), The new *peasant sleeves are featured in the waist part of these garments.
1900Archit. Rev. June p. xxii/2 A twin bedstead..is covered with *peasant tapestry designed by Mr. Godfrey Blunt. 1962L. Deighton Ipcress File vii. 45 The rugs..of simple dark-toned peasant weaves.
1975I. S. Black Man on Bridge v. 66 A *peasant-weave curtain covered the window.
3. Comb., as peasant-shooting, peasant-born, peasant-minded adjs.; peasant-like adj., like or proper to a peasant.
1600Heywood 2nd Pt. Edw. IV, Wks. 1874 I. 118 Pesant⁓like, vnheard-of treachery. 1703Steele Tend. Husb. ii. i, What a Peasant-like Amour do these course Words import? 1844P. Harwood Hist. Irish Reb. 145 To check the system of torture, house-burning, and peasant-shooting. 1886W. J. Tucker E. Europe 303 The room..was..partly peasant⁓like in its appurtenances and partly burgher-like. 1895Westm. Gaz. 5 Nov. 2/1 A grind of Greek grammar by night will not eliminate the peasant in the peasant-born. 1961J. Barlow Term of Trial i. iii. 53 The louts are essentially peasant-minded about sex.
Hence ˈpeasantess, a female peasant; ˈpeasanthood, peasant quality or condition; ˈpeasantship, peasanthood; a peasant community, a commune (Ger. bauerschaft).
1841H. F. Chorley Music & Manners (1844) III. 88 Here were *peasantesses, presiding over their homely wares in enormous winged caps. 1889tr. Mme. Carette's Empress Eugénie vii. 223 A handsome and strong peasantess was selected to nurse the Prince.
1830Examiner 773/1 The homely dress she wore in the days of her *peasanthood.
1762tr. Busching's Syst. Geog. IV. 339 These prefecturates consist of parishes, and the parishes in them of *peasantships, which are properly small villages..in which many peasants reside together.
▪ II. † ˈpeasant, v. Obs. rare.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To make a peasant of; to subject as a peasant, bondman, or serf.
1599Marston Sco. Villanie i. ii, But now (sad change!) the kennell sincke of slaues Pesant great Lords, and seruile seruice craues. Ibid. iii. xi, The now poore Soule (Thus pesanted to each lewd thoughts controule). |