cottar
- noun
- /ˈkɒtə/
- Archaic
:
campesino
- Many cottars in the Scottish Highlands grow their own vegetables and raise livestock.
Examples
-
The cottar worked hard in the fields to support his family and maintain their small cottage.
-
Here, had a cottar encountered me under such circumstances, I would doubtless have been thought a witch or a fairy.
Fiction book (1991) -
Finally, the last of the cottars and tenants drifted away to their dinners, and Dougal stood up and stretched, looking moderately satisfied, like a cat that has dined at least on milk, if not cream.
Fiction book (1991) -
As a cottar, she was proud of her ability to cultivate the land and provide for her household.
Synonyms
157
3.5
A person who works on land for a living, usually on a small farm
5
8.2
A person who works as a farmer in rural areas, especially in Latin America
A poor farm worker who lives in a small cottage and works the land
A rural worker who lived in a cottage and farmed a small plot of land in the Middle Ages
A person in Italy who works on a small family farm
How Poor
Surface Forms
Morphology
cottar = cot (semi-transparent) = cot + ar
Built from 'cot' (a small dwelling) with an agentive suffix indicating an inhabitant; the specific historical/social meaning 'peasant farmer (Scots)' is regional and somewhat specialized.
Etymology
Cottar comes from the old word cot meaning 'small house'. A cottar was someone who lived in a tiny cottage and farmed a little piece of land, so the word now means a peasant farmer who keeps a small house and plot.