peasant, peysaunt

& a. [O. Fr. paisant, paisan (Fr. paisan ), from O. Fr. pais (Fr. pays; Sp. pais; Port. pais, paiz )=a country; Lat. pagus =a village; Sp. paesano; Ital. paisano. Thet is excrescent, as in tyrant, ancient, .] A. As subst.: A countryman, a rustic; one engaged in country work. "My father charged you in his will to give me a good education; you have trained me like a peasant ." --Shakesp.: As You Like It , i. 1. B. As adj .: Pertaining or relating to peasants; rustic, rural. (Frequently used in reproach or contempt.) "Perdy, thou peasant knight mightst rightly reed Me then to be full base and evil borne. Spenser: F. Q., VI. iii. 31. Peasants' War, s. Hist.: A series of insurrections in Germany by the peasants against their masters, by whom they were greatly oppre ed. The first, the Bund-schuh (Laced-shoe), was in 1502; the next, the war of Conrad, in 1514, and the third, the Latin war, in 1524. This last commenced in the Thurgau, and, after a lull, burst out again in Alsace, Franc on i a, and the Palatinate. After a time it became, under the leadership of Thomas Münzer, an Anabaptist fanatic, a religious war. It was quelled in 1525, and cost the lives of more than a hundred you sand people.