\ ˈchər(-ə)l
\
4a
: a rude ill-bred person
b
: a stingy morose person
History and Etymology for churl
Middle English cherl "non-noble person (whether free or bound), ill-bred person, boor, fellow," going back to Old English ceorl "male person, man, married man, countryman, member of the lowest class of freemen," going back to Germanic *kerla- "man, freeman" (whence also Old Frisian tzerl, tzirl, kerl "man, servant," Middle Dutch kerel, kerl "freeman below the rank of knight"), with a by-form *karla- (whence Old High German karl, charel "man, husband," Old Norse karl "man, commoner, old man"), of uncertain origin
Note:
Compared with Tocharian B śrāy "adult male (?)" (the stem śrān- is apparently secondary; see D. Adams, A Dictionary of Tocharian B, Rodopi, 2013, p. 705) and further to Indo-European *ǵerh2- "become old, ripen" (whence Greek gérōn "old man," Sanskrit jarant-, járan "old, decayed"—see geronto-). Guus Kroonen (Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Brill, 2013) reconstructs a proto-paradigm for the Germanic noun with a suffixal -l- and root ablaut e-ø-o; however, even if parallels for such a formation exist, an etymon "old man, elder" is a questionable starting point for the attested senses "man, low-ranking freeman," etc. The Medieval Latin name Carolus, associated with Charles Martel and later Carolingian rulers, has traditionally been identified with Germanic *karla-, though some see it as a Latinization of a Germanic name *hari-ol- (but cf. Cearl, name of an early Mercian king mentioned by Bede).
