Sense file
How the sense moved
The archive follows the dated record first, then reads the social or rhetorical pressure that hardened, softened, narrowed, or reversed the word.
Older meaning
A man, freeman, or peasant of low rank.
Modern meaning
A rude, surly, or ungenerous person.
Research lens
A status word that becomes a temperament word, which is exactly the sort of moralization this archive tracks.
Meaning trail
Root
man or peasant
The old word named a social type, not a bad temper.
Older sense
freeman of low rank
The word still belonged to social order.
Now
rude or ungenerous person
Status and temperament fused into insult.