If I'm reading Lords of Men right, "famuli" is the correct term for household servants, and "villein" has recently become a non-PC term for serfs, but my Google-Fu has proven weak, so . . .
What's the correct 13th century French term for a tenant farmer who is nonetheless a freeman?
Likewise, what's the 13th century French term for a peasant farmer who owns his own farm?
-Albert
I don't have Lord of Men, but...
Historically, a "vilain" is a free peasant, while the "serf" who work for their lord generation after generation.
A peasant who owns his land is called an "alleutier". They are fairly rare in this period.
Alleutiers could be nobles. They are allodal owners of land.
For peasants in French : vilains, ribauds, manants or gueux are equally usable.
The medieval society is split in three parts, but there are only Latin words for them:
Sacerdotes : the Church
Nobiles : the noble ones
Pauperes : the others
Amongst the "pauperes" you may find different categories. All I know about it will be displayed as that :
Middleage Latin word --> old French (female counterpart)[Year of first occurency]/Provençal --> modern French (female counterpart)
pagensis --> païsant(païsande)[1140]/pagés --> paysan(paysanne) : country dweller, plowman (no particular overtone).
villanus --> vilain[1119]/??? --> vilain(vilaine) : freeman, free peasant (with a depreciative overtone : in 1200', "vilain" means both "peasant" and "ugly, disgracious"). "Vilains" are rare.
servus --> serw[~900]/??? --> serf(serve)[1100]/??? --> serf(serve) : peasant who don't have his own farm, and must obey his seigneur(who can be a baron, a bishop...). Most of the peasants are "serfs".
medietarius --> moitoier(moitoière)[]/??? --> métayer (métayère) : peasant who work in a farm but don't possess it, and have to give back half of the produce to the farm-owner. Not a widespread status.
burgens --> burgeis(???)[1100]/??? --> bourgeois(bourgeoise) : citizen of a free town
manant --> manant(manande)[1175]/??? --> No modern counterpart : a person who is neither a noble one, neither a clerical one, who possess a house but isn't an official bourgeois (see above)
The word "gueux" only appears around 15th century (circa 1458).