Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Logan_mov t1_ivac7k3 wrote

Did peasants or countrymen knew they were called peasants or countrymen? Would they refer to their areas (villages, neighbourhoods etc.) and the people living in them as something? Doing research for my fiction novel, trying to be as historically accurate as possible.

2

en43rs t1_ivacwt2 wrote

Can you be clearer? What period are you referring to? What do you mean by "peasants or countrymen". Do you mean: do peasants understood their status as "non city folk"?

1

Logan_mov t1_ivaf25v wrote

do the know that they are labelled as ‘peasants’ or ‘countrymen’

2

en43rs t1_ivafm1w wrote

When and where? 1788 France is very different from 15 AD Rome.

But in general... yeah. Why wouldn't they? It's just a word. Help me here, I'm not really sure I understand your question. Do they know that they are called by a specific word? Is that it?

1

Logan_mov t1_ivaj5zq wrote

yeah, if they knew they were called a specific word, or term, or would they call themselves a specific word or term. Also, I was talking about Medieval Europe, sorry.

2

en43rs t1_ivakpb2 wrote

Okay. Yeah they know. Peasant is not an insult, it's a neutral descriptor. And they know it exist because they know that even if they represent the vast majority of the population, there are people that do not live like them. Even if rural community are relatively isolated (compared to a town) they're not completely cut off from the world (the stereotype of the village man who never saw anyone that wasn't from his village is nonsense). They pay taxes to their lord and/or the king, that means a tax collector (and the lord itself). Their priest is educated in a neighboring city and rarely from the village itself. They sell their products to a market town where they meet people from all other... they are in contact with the wider world.

So yes they use the term or local equivalent... when talking of themselves in relation to other groups. "We, peasants, are not like you city folk", that kind of things. Otherwise if they have to use a term they use the name of their village ("we are the people of St Johnston up Avon" or whatever). Just like if you live in a city nowadays you're more likely to say "I'm from Manchester" rather than "I'm a city dweller" unless you have to specify in context.

2

jezreelite t1_ivb7mxw wrote

A French or Anglo-Norman noble referring to peasants might call them villeins. Though villein tended to be specific to serfs (rather than free peasants), most peasants in France, the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, northern Iberia, and post-1066 England were serfs.

1

PlayRevolutionary344 t1_ivtuj5c wrote

Not sure if it's the same but in Britian we have the class system and everyone knows what class they are in . We know the terms people use for use for us too. So I would assume yes people historically were the same

1

Logan_mov t1_ivuryt9 wrote

ye but would they know any specific words that ehy were called?

1

PlayRevolutionary344 t1_ivvo381 wrote

Depends on various things, 1 Location 2. Time peroid and 3. The class using them. I could give you some ideas of terms used for Britian and Ireland that were around queen victorias time
Some slang by lowerclass would include Brickies (brick layer ) Quakers (worked soup kitchens in irish famine ) (Mutton Shunter) policeman Docker (dock worker) THREE-PENNY UPRIGHT ( a prositute ) Bit Faker (someone who made fake coins ) Bludger (violent criminal) Didikko (person of travelling community) Dipper (Pickpocket) Don (leader or distinguised person ) Flash (something or someone Posh eg flash house) Spike Workhouse , landsharks bloodsuckers(landlords) gentry (gentleman

Upperclass and middle being better educated would be less likely to use slang, When I look at letters written at the time about the famine for example the terms used are straightforward compared to lowerclass slang but terms I've seen are things like the labouring men, The middle men (for landlords) Tendry (tennants)
"It would be impossible adequately to describe the privations which they [the Irish labourer and his family] habitually and silently endure ..."

I think if your looking for earlier good examples of how things were written earlier would be to read a few chapters from books of that era your interested in that focus on class division eg poldark (set in early 18th century) or something like homers oddessy if you want ancient greece, shakespere if you want 1600s etc

1

Logan_mov t1_ivvrskc wrote

wow, this is extremely detailed, I will try to incorporate these aspects into my writing!

1

_Totorotrip_ t1_iw7xe2b wrote

Are you an urban peasant? Maybe we will be described as that in the future, who knows

1