Peon

The words peon and peonage are derived from the Spanish peón (pay-OAN).

Spanish usage

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.

English usage

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:

United States 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."

Peon

Spanish usage

English usage

See also