CHURL

churl (kilay or kelay): The Hebrew word occurs only in Isaiah 32:5, 7, in the latter verse in a form slightly modified so as to produce a pleasing assonance with the word immediately following. The word probably means "crafty" or "miserly," both ideas being suitable to the context, though "miserly" accords with the setting in Isaiah somewhat better.

In 1 Samuel 25:3 the Hebrew qasheh which means "hard," "severe," "rough," is rendered "churlish." In Saxon, churl, as the name for the lowest order of freemen, came to be used of persons boorish in manner. The rough and ill-mannered Nabal is aptly described as churlish.

John Richard Sampey