Word of the Day for Wednesday, November 30, 2011
churlish \CHUR-lish\, adjective:
1. Boorish or rude.
2. Of a churl; peasantlike.
3. Stingy; mean.
4. Difficult to work or deal with, as soil.
And Ethel, though sometimes sharp and malicious and difficult, wasn't churlish or unpunctual or casual at all.
-- Ruth Rendell, One Across, Two Down
I call it churlish that you would complain of a little time spent in schooling me when the rewards I've earned you come in thick and fast.
-- Karen Miller, A Blight of Mages
Churlish originates in the Old English ceorlisc meaning “peasant, freeman, man without rank.” It had various meanings in early Middle English, including "man of the common people," "a country man," "husbandman," "free peasant." By 1300, it meant "bondman, villain," also "fellow of low birth or rude manners."
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