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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

métayer

English translation:

tenant farmer

Added to glossary by Yvonne Gallagher
Feb 23, 2012 15:53
12 yrs ago
French term

métayer

French to English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
the context is a guide to a local attraction.

Paysan, le métayer est la cheville ouvrière de l'exploitation..........

I know the word translates to "sharecropper" but feel this is not likely to mean much to the average English visitor, although it might to an American visitor, I don't know. My preferred term would be "tenant farmer" but doesn't that imply paying rent?

Any offers?
Proposed translations (English)
4 +4 tenant farmer
4 +3 sharecropper
4 Tenant on shares
Change log

Feb 24, 2012 21:24: Yvonne Gallagher Created KOG entry

Discussion

Just Opera Feb 23, 2012:
works + recieves crops as payment I think in this context is the meaning. i.e. the "workhorse" not sharecropper or tenant farmer.

see: definition 2

http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/métayer

Personne qui travaille à une ferme et qui reçoit une portion de la récolte comme salaire.
B D Finch Feb 23, 2012:
Keeping it short: '"métayer" sharecropper'? By making it a compound expression, rather than putting "sharecropper" in brackets (which should be square ones if used), it implies that this is a particular type of sharecropper.
Colin Rowe Feb 23, 2012:
How about: '... "<I>métayer</I>" (type of sharecropper) ...' ?
Alison Sparks (X) (asker) Feb 23, 2012:
@BDF I would love to be able to do that, but there is a very specific word limit which doesn't really leave room for an explanation.
B D Finch Feb 23, 2012:
Tenant farmers In England and Wales, this is understood to mean payment of monetary rent. I think that it is best to retain the French term with an explanation that this is a specific form of sharecropping.
Alison Sparks (X) (asker) Feb 23, 2012:
Yes it is strictly accurate given the explanation in French. and I know the rent is paid in crops, but I have seen examples of tenant farmers paying their rent entirely in crops as well. I should add that the context is also historical.
Penny Hewson (X) Feb 23, 2012:
I don't think you could use "tenant farmer" as that would imply that the "paysan" paid his rent in cash whereas a métayer pays his rent in crops.
Tony M Feb 23, 2012:
Sharecropper I agree that is the term usually given; but is 'métayer' being used strictly accurately here? i.e. does it really involve the specific mechanism of 'sharecropping'? If not, then you might consider 'smallholders' or 'small farmers' — as you say, 'tenant farmer' does indeed imply 'paying rent', which seems to be contradicted by the use of the term 'paysan' (again, if it is being used strictu sensu).

Proposed translations

+4
22 mins
Selected

tenant farmer

a tenant farmer can pay in kind (crops/labour) or in cash or by a combination

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenant_farmer

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Note added at 1 day5 hrs (2012-02-24 21:25:03 GMT) Post-grading
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glad to have helped
Note from asker:
That tends to confirm my thoughts, thanks.
Peer comment(s):
agree Tony M : Yes, in the light of additional context.
21 mins
Thanks Tony!
agree cc in nyc : "a person who farms the land of another and pays rent with cash or with a portion of the produce." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tenant farmer
26 mins
Thanks CC!
agree Helen Shiner
30 mins
Thanks Helen!
agree EllieZa (X)
57 mins
many thanks:-)
disagree B D Finch : A tenant farmer, at least in England and Wales has always meant somebody who pays monetary rent. The Wikipedia article is extremely muddled and inaccurate (it even mixes villeins, who were serfs, with post-feudal tenant farmers).
1 hr
agree Letredenoblesse
19 hrs
many thanks:-)
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "thanks to all, all points noted, but I'll stick with something more immediately recognisable to your average UK visitor."
7 mins

Tenant on shares

Maybe something descriptive like this phrase could fit into your text structure somehow.
Example sentence:

"...and the slave gradually became a metayer, or tenant on shares, in name, but a laborer with indeterminate wages in fact...."

Reference:

http://www.wordnik.com/words/metayer

Note from asker:
Nice thought, but it feels unwieldy to me.
Something went wrong...
+3
35 mins

sharecropper

Even if the term has historically been chiefly used in a US context, I would have thought that the concept is fairly self-explanatory and would not require a gloss or footnote of any kind for a British audience. In terms of definition it is certainly pretty close to the original French term.

What the concept was actually called in English at the time, I have no idea, but Wikipedia states that the practice was also widespread in the British Isles:

"Sharecropping occurred extensively in colonial Africa, Scotland, and Ireland and came into wide use in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping

Also from Wikipedia:

The Metayage system (Fr. métayage) is the cultivation of land for a proprietor by one who receives a proportion of the produce, as a kind of sharecropping.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Métayage
Note from asker:
All the references I've found say it's specific to the US but thanks anyway
Peer comment(s):
agree philgoddard : Yes, most people in the UK would know this.
1 min
Thanks. Main advantage is that the term is pretty self-explanatory.
agree cc in nyc : "a tenant farmer who pays as rent a share of the crop." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sharecropper
13 mins
Precisely. By definition, a sharecropper pays part of the crop as rent. With "tenant farmer", this is not necessarily the case and has to be explained separately.
neutral Yvonne Gallagher : I agree many would know what this meant but it is a US term and while it may say "sharecropping" in Wikipedia, historically in Ireland (at least) it was known as tenant farmer/farming
28 mins
Collins English Dictionary: "Chiefly US...", i.e. not exclusively! Thanks for the insight about Ireland :-)
agree Sheila Wilson : I didn't realise it wasn't often used in British English. It certainly sounds familiar to my very British ears
29 mins
Neither did I. And to mine. Thanks!
neutral B D Finch : I think it is commonly understood in Britain, even though only from the US context. However, it seems from Wikipedia that métayage was a particular type of sharecropping.
1 hr
How about: '... "métayer" (type of sharecropper) ...' ?
Something went wrong...
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