English

Noun

kmet ‎(plural kmets or kmetovi)

1. (now 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 2002, p. 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 2013, p. 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

From Proto-Slavic *kъmetь, from Latin comes.

Noun

kmet m

1. very old men

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *kъmetь, from Latin comes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kmêt/

Noun

kmȅt m ‎(Cyrillic spelling кме̏т)

1. peasant (especially feudal)
2. village major or leader

Declension

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *kъmetь, from Latin comes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkmɛ́t/
• Tonal orthography: kmȅt

Noun

kmèt m anim ‎(genitive kméta, nominative plural kmétje or kméti)

1. peasant
2. (chess) pawn

Declension