kmet

English

Etymology

From Serbo-Croatian kmȅt. Doublet of count and comes.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kmɛt/
• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun

kmet (plural kmets or kmetovi)

1. (historical) A serf on the Balkan peninsula, especially one holding land under the estate system introduced by the Ottomans and retained in some areas by Austria-Hungary.
   • 1876, Arthur John Evans, Through Bosnia and Herzegovina On Foot:

     Suffering from this double disability, social and religious, the Christian ‘kmet,’ or tiller of the soil, is worse off than many a serf in our darkest ages, and lies as completely at the mercy of the Mahometan owner of the soil as if he were a slave.

   • 1997, Michael Palairet, The Balkan Economies c. 1800-1914, Cambridge, published 2002, page 206:

     The authorities repeatedly emphasized that the kmet was not bound to his master, to counter allegations equating kmet tenure with servile status.

   • 2012, Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers, Penguin, published 2013, page 74:

     In any case, the Serbian kmets who remained within the old estate system on the eve of the First World War were not especially badly off by the standards of early twentieth-century peasant Europe […]

Czech

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *kъmetь, from Latin comes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):
• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun

kmet m anim

1. very old man

   Synonym: stařec

Declension

Further reading

• kmet in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• kmet in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
• kmet in Internetová jazyková příručka

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *kъmetь, from Latin comes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kmêt/

Noun

kmȅt m (Cyrillic spelling кме̏т)

1. (historical) serf, peon (a working peasant on lord's estate)
2. peasant, villager
3. village major or leader

Declension

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *kъmetь, from Latin comes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kmɛ́t/

Noun

kmȅt m anim

1. peasant
2. (chess) pawn

Inflection

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.