The words peon and peonage are derived from the Spanish peón (pe'on). It's a range of meanings but its primary usage's to describe labourers with little control over their employment conditions. Spanish usage In its obsolete usage in Spain itself, the word denoted a person who travelled by foot rather than on a horse (caballero). It now means a chess pawn, or a trompo (a kind of rotating toy or top). In Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries, especially those in Latin America, where th… (More on Peon)