the OE. original of CHURL; often retained by historical writers, to avoid the associations of the later form: An Old English freeman of the lowest class, opposed on one side to a thane or nobleman, on the other to the servile classes.
a. 1000. Laws of Eth., vii. 21 (Thorpe I. 334). We witan ðæt þurh Godes ʓyfe, þræl wearþ to þeʓene, and ceorl wearþ to eorle.
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., ii. (1614), 4/1. Ceorle or Churle, of their Yeomanly condition.
1650. Elderfield, Tythes, 85. Every ceorle or husbandman.
1735–8. Bolingbroke, Parties, 193. The Ceorles were Freemen to all Intents and Purposes.
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng., I. App. i. 95. If the person killed be a clown or ceorle.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (ed. 3), I. iii. 97. The ceorl was fast sinking into the villain.
1875. Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., viii. 132. In England all who did not become thanes were classed as ceorls.
