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History vocabulary · Economic History

Agrarian

Meaning in history, with examples

/əˈɡreəriən/adjectiveCommon term

In history, agrarian means: Relating to farming, land and the people who work it, or describing a society or economy based mainly on agriculture.

In Turkish: tarımsal, tarıma dayalı, zirai

How it is used

Common in social and economic history: an agrarian society, agrarian economy, agrarian reform (redistributing land), agrarian unrest. Agricultural is the everyday word for farming activities; agrarian often adds the social and political side of land.

Example sentences

  1. Until the 1950s Turkey was a largely agrarian society.

  2. The new government promised agrarian reform and the breakup of large estates.

Common collocations

  • agrarian society
  • agrarian economy
  • agrarian reform
  • agrarian unrest
  • agrarian history
  • peasantA person who lives in the countryside and farms a small piece of land with family labour, often paying rent, taxes or labour services to a landowner or the state.
  • feudalismA term for the social and political order of medieval Europe in which lords granted land to vassals in return for loyalty and military service, while peasants worked the land.
  • industrializationThe process by which an economy shifts from mainly farming and handicrafts to large-scale manufacturing in factories using machines.
  • NeolithicRelating to the New Stone Age, when people began farming, keeping animals and living in permanent villages, starting around 10,000 BC in the Near East.

More terms: Economic History

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