churlish

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 20, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>churlish</strong> &#149; \CHUR-lish\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><em>Churlish</em> is a formal word that means “irritable and rude.”</p> <p>// It would be <em>churlish</em> not to congratulate the winning team because we lost the match. </p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/churlish">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“‘Ted Lasso’ has gradually become more of a light drama than a comedy, but it’s such a pleasant one that it seems <em>churlish</em> to even point this out. In that dramatic vein, the show's depiction of Nate is more compelling than I might have anticipated. The series has never been particularly interested in validating the man-child archetype, but it is interested in how insecurity can manifest itself into toxic behavior and Nate is the epitome of that.” — Nina Metz, <em>The Chicago Tribune</em>, 15 Mar. 2023 </p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>In Old English, the word <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ceorl"><em>ceorl</em></a> referred to a free peasant—someone who was neither part of the nobility nor enslaved or in debt. In Anglo-Saxon England, which lasted roughly from the 5th to 11th centuries, <a href="https://britannica.com/topic/ceorl">ceorls</a> had many rights that peasants of lower social status did not, and a few even rose to the rank of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/topic/thane-feudal-lord">thane</a>. However, as most ceorls were driven into the class of unfree <a href="/dictionary/villein">villeins</a> over the centuries, especially following the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Norman-Conquest">Norman Conquest</a>, the connotation of the word <em>ceorl</em>—spelled <em>cherl</em> in Middle English and then finally <em>churl</em>—di