churlish
adjective
Margaret Truman Robert Goldsborough
Did you know?
The History of Churlish Goes Back to Anglo-Saxon England
It is easy to understand how churlish has come to mean "vulgar," "surly," and "intractable"—if you know your English history. In Anglo-Saxon England, a churl, or ceorl, was a freeman of the lowest rank who owned and cultivated a small farm. He had certain rights and had upward mobility to rise to the rank of thane. After the Norman Conquest, however, many churls became serfs, a change in status that meant losing not just social mobility but geographical mobility as well. The lowest rungs of a social system often serve as inspiration for a language's pejoratives, and churl eventually came to be used as a term for a rude, ill-bred person.
Synonyms
- boorish
- classless
- cloddish
- clownish
- loutish
- uncouth
Example Sentences
Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 28 Feb. 2022 Wham, the churlish AI wipes us all out, not even waiting for the meteor to do so. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 17 Mar. 2022 Smith acquiesces to contemporary platitudes that stereotype the black male work ethic as churlish and autocratic, confusing those traits with strength. Armond White, National Review, 11 Feb. 2022 Apparently, many voters used that clause to leave the churlish Bonds off their ballots. Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 Jan. 2022 West’s collaborators weren’t the only ones who were churlish with Donda‘s release; West himself expressed dissatisfaction with the rollout. Cady Lang, Time, 30 Aug. 2021 That said, it must also be stipulated that people seem to like Little Island, including some ordinarily churlish critics. Washington Post, 5 Aug. 2021 These boys are churlish and brusque, with chapped rosy cheeks Duveneck has masterfully captured. Leyla Shokoohe, The Enquirer, 9 Apr. 2021 Logic may seem like a churlish thing to wish for in a movie that deliberately operates in such a heightened state of unreality. Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 25 Feb. 2021 See More Word History
Middle English cherlyssh "of churls, rustic, uncouth," going back to Old English ceorlisc, cyrlisc, from ceorl "male person, countryman, member of the lowest class of free men" + -isc -ish — more at churl
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
churlish
adjective
Synonyms & Similar Words
- boorish
- uncouth
- loutish
- stupid
- cloddish
- clownish
- classless
- rude
- vulgar
- ungracious
- unsophisticated
- discourteous
- impolite
- unpolished
- awkward
- unmannerly
- doltish
- tasteless
- coarse
- uncultivated
- unrefined
- oafish
- uncivil
- bestial
- mannerless
- ill-bred
- beastly
- ungainly
- misleared
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- sophisticated
- polished
- gentlemanly
- genteel
- polite
- cultivated
- refined
- classy
- couth
- civil
- courteous
- well-bred
- courtly
- ladylike
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of churlish are boorish, clownish, and loutish. While all these words mean "uncouth in manners or appearance," churlish suggests surliness, unresponsiveness, and ungraciousness.
Although the words boorish and churlish have much in common, boorish implies rudeness of manner due to insensitiveness to others' feelings and unwillingness to be agreeable.
In some situations, the words clownish and churlish are roughly equivalent. However, clownish suggests ill-bred awkwardness, ignorance or stupidity, ungainliness, and often a propensity for absurd antics.
The synonyms loutish and churlish are sometimes interchangeable, but loutish implies bodily awkwardness together with stupidity.