Peon
The words Peon and peonage are from Spanish peón derived.
Meanings in Spanish
In a now obsolete usage of the word, the word meant someone who traveled on foot rather than on horseback ( caballero ). It now denotes a pawn in chess .
In Spanish-speaking countries, particularly Latin America, where the hacienda system prevented farm workers from leaving the haciendas, peon has a number of meanings in connection with unskilled or semi-skilled manual workers. It can designate a wage worker or a servant or, historically, an unfree worker.
Meanings in German
The derived foreign words peon and peonage mostly refer to the form of unfree work that comes very close to slavery, as it is e.g. B. in Mexico and the southern United States (after the Reconstruction ) was widespread.
Meanings in English
The derived English word peon has a number of different and additional meanings.
In the USA, peon has in a historical and legal sense the meaning of someone who is employed in a system of unfree labor (peonage). It often implies debt bondage or indentured servant status . In general, the word is colloquially used in the English-speaking world to refer to a clerk or soldier with little authority who has unskilled work or some dull drudgery to do. The word then often has a pejorative connotation.
In the English of South Asia , a peon is often an office boy, a guard, or an officer's lad, a person with low jobs (and historically a policeman or foot soldier). It's very derogatory. In a meaning that is not related to this, peon can also be an alternative spelling for the poon tree (genus Calophyllum ) or its wood, especially in shipbuilding.
In computer language , a peon is a user with few privileges on a system. The opposite is the " superuser ".
In the computer game "Warcraft" and World of Warcraft , orc workers are called peons .