In colonial America, it seems that the term "farmer" was rarely used and the term "yeoman" was used instead. I do understand that they have slightly different connotations ("someone who owns/manages a farm" vs. "a commoner who cultivates their own land"). But that just adds to my curiosity. When and why did people stop using the former in favor of the latter, given that they actually do mean slightly different things?
Or was "yeoman" a word that upper class people would use, whereas the actual yeomen themselves had called themselves "farmers" all along?
I realize this might be a better question for /r/linguistics or /r/etymology, but I'm not sure which one, so I thought I'd ask here first.
Generally slightly different usages. Farmer was a occupation. Yeoman was a title. In the old world it meant you owned 40 acres or more freehold land and were entitled to vote. That was more of status symbol when 40 acres of property in England was worth thousands of acres in America. Any man could come to America and become a land owner, even an indentured servant. So it's not so much that it went out of style as it is that as time wore on it was less important. In the 17th century and even into the 18th century large landowners who came from that class in the old world and had at least that much property in the new world clung to that designation but as time wore on they simply used farmer.