peon

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“
This peon was a half-witted Indian who lived in a shack and did odd jobs for the Mexicans.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun An unskilled laborer or farm worker of Latin America or the southwest United States.
  2. noun Such a worker bound in servitude to a landlord creditor.
  3. noun A menial worker; a drudge.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The baron flushed; the penalties for a peon or bond-tenant trying to leave an Association fief were fairly gruesome, assuming they survived recapture. —  Map.html
  • It wasn't as if she was a peon, the family trade required literacy and arithmetic. —  Map.html
  • This poor little peon is always being "picked" on. —  The Toque
  • The state government offered to rehabilitate him and he got a job as a peon at the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar hostel for Backward Class boys in Bhandara. —  Top Stories - Google News
  • According to the statisticians of the World Bank and others who speculate about how many Anglos can dance on the head of a peon, Haiti may either be the second, third or fourth poorest country in the world.
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This word has been looked up 112 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Spanish, day laborer, from Medieval Latin pedō, pedōn-, foot soldier; see pioneer. Sense 3, possibly from Portuguese peão, from Medieval Latin pedō.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Spanish peon = Portuguese peão, a foot-soldier, a day-laborer, a pedestrian, = Old French peon, paon, pion, a foot-soldier, French pion, a pawn (in chess), from Middle Latin pedo (n-), a foot-soldier, from Latin pes (ped-) = English foot: see pedal, etc. Cf. pawn, a doublet of peon.
 

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/ˈpiən/
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