Peon
The words
peon and
peonage are derived from the
Spanish peón (pay-OAN).
In its obsolete usage in
Spain itself, the word denoted a person who travelled by foot rather than on a
horse (
caballero). It now means a
chess pawn.
In other Spanish-speaking countries, especially those in
Latin America, where the
hacienda system kept labourers from leaving estates,
peon has a range of meanings related to unskilled or semi-skilled
work or
manual labour, whether referring to a low-status
wage earner in a variety of
rural and
urban industries (especially a
day labourer or a
servant); a
peasant; a
bullfighter's assistant, or, historically, someone subject to forms of
unfree labour.
The
English words peon and peonage were derived from the Spanish word, and have a variety of meanings related to the Spanish usages, as well as some other meanings.
In the
English-speaking world in general, the term is used colloquially to mean a person with little authority, often assigned unskilled or drudgerous tasks; an underling. In this sense,
peon can be used in either a derogatory or self-effacing context.
There are several ways in which in the word is used:
*
American English: in a historical and legal sense, peon generally only had the meaning of someone working in an unfree labor system (known as
peonage). The word often implied
debt bondage and/or
indentured servitude.
*
South Asian English: a peon is usually an office boy, an attendant, or an orderly, a person kept around for odd jobs (and, historically, a policeman or foot soldier). It is also strongly derogatory. (In an unrelated South Asian sense, "peon" may also be an alternative spelling for the
poon tree (genus
Calophyllum) or its wood, especially when used in boat-building.)
*
Computing slang: a peon is an "unprivileged user"—a person without special privileges on a computer system. The opposite is a "
superuser."
*
Feudalism*
Peasant*
Proletariat*
Social class
