n.
  - a poor smallholder or agricultural labourer of low social status.
 - informal an ignorant, rude, or unsophisticated person.
 
 
  Derivative
  
    - peasantry n.
  - peasanty adj.
 
   
  Etymology
  ME: from OFr. paisent ‘country dweller’, from pais ‘country’, based on L. pagus ‘country district’.