agrarian

Definitions

agr (field, land) + -arian (relating to / one connected with) = 'belonging to the land.' From there it splits two ways: a neutral sense (an agrarian society lives by farming) and a political one (agrarian reform = redistributing who owns the farmland).

Why It Means This

Agrarian started as the Roman lex agraria — the 'land laws' that decided how public farmland was divided among citizens. That history is why the word still leans political: when you read agrarian reform or agrarian movement, it is really about the ownership of land, not just farming in general. In its plainer sense it simply means 'rural, farming-based,' as in an agrarian economy.

Common Collocations

• 1.agrarian reform土地改革
• 2.agrarian society农业社会
• 3.agrarian economy农业经济
• 4.agrarian movement农民运动

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Before industrialization, the country was a largely agrarian society.

• 2.

  The new government promised sweeping agrarian reform.

• 3.

  Their economy remained agrarian well into the twentieth century.

Easily Confused

agrarian vs agricultural: agricultural describes the activity of farming (agricultural products, agricultural machinery). agrarian describes a whole society or economy built on land, and often the politics of land ownership (agrarian reform). You'd say 'agricultural exports,' not 'agrarian exports'; and 'agrarian reform,' not 'agricultural reform.'