Dräng?

[Andrea Flanagan]

Listed in a birth record as occupation: Dräng, Soldat.  I know he was a soldier, but what does dräng refer to?

[Per Eriksson]

Farmhand
 
//Peppe

[Andrea Flanagan]

Thank you!  That makes much more sense than what I got from a translation website I found.

[Anders Hellster]

Dräng also has a general meaning of unmarried young man.
 
/Anders H.

[Ingela Martenius]

Well, this rather depends on when and where...
 
A young man early 19th century in Skåne, yes, he would be a dräng because he was young and unmarried...a young man same time in Västergötland would be a dräng only if he was a farmhand, and he may even have been married. But a 100 or a 150 years earlier in Västergötland, you had the same usage of dräng there.
 
Same for females and the use of piga, (outdoor or farmer) maid.
 
Ingela