What does the word "bydlo" mean and how did it become an insult?

Today, the word "bydlo" sounds like an offensive term for rude and ignorant people. However, it originally had no offensive connotation. In Polish, "bydło" had a completely neutral meaning and was used in everyday speech without the slightest restriction. But over time, everything changed. What does this offensive word actually mean, and why has its meaning changed so dramatically?

In Polish, the word "bydlo" has long meant "domestic animal" or "cattle." But with the emergence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it acquired a second meaning. The Polish privileged class, the gentry, considered themselves descendants of the ancient Sarmatians. These nobles enjoyed war, but they deeply disliked ordinary labor.

A true Polish nobleman, once ruined, was willing to starve or rob on the highway rather than engage in physical labor. This class considered agriculture particularly humiliating. The noblemen called the peasants who worked the land "bydlo"—"animals." This was how they emphasized their ethnic and social superiority.

Being members of the same nation as the peasants, the gentry considered the common people enslaved strangers, "two-legged cattle." A nobleman could beat, rob, and even kill a peasant with minimal consequences for himself. But in the 18th century, when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned and its territories became part of the Russian Empire, the gentry lost its privileges and much of its arrogance.

When the Poles began living in the same state as Russians, some of their words entered our language. Unfortunately, this included swear words. The habit of calling peasants "cattle" was quickly adopted by Russian nobles. Later, this offensive term also began to be used by the townspeople and commoners.

In Poland, the word "bydlo" (cattle) continued to refer to livestock, but in Russian it no longer had a direct agrarian connotation. Therefore, in Russia, it immediately became an insult, without alternatives. Over time, it came to be used not only for peasants but also for generally rude, primitive, and ignorant people.

Today, the word "bydlo" has become a label used to easily humiliate people, although its historical meaning was much simpler and more neutral. But should we continue to use such terms, knowing their origins and offensive connotations? Do you think this is appropriate in modern language, or should such expressions be consigned to the past?