A paean (pronounced PEE-in, sometimes spelled pean), is a fervent expression of joy or praise, often in song. A paeon (pronounced PEE-in or PEE-on) is a four-syllable metrical foot in prosody. Anyone who doesn’t analyze poetry will never have need for paeon. A peon (pronounced PEE-on) is an unskilled laborer or menial worker. The first two words have origins in the same Greek term; peon comes from the Medieval Latin term for foot soldier.
The use of peon is most common in Indian English, where it’s used to describe any worker and presumably doesn’t have negative connotations. In American and British English, peon has an insulting tone. No one, in the U.S. at least, wants to be a peon.
Examples
These writers use paean well:
“Atlas Shrugged” is a book that’s part science fiction, part paean to capitalism. [Los Angeles Times]
Another innovation of that era was the “once seen” notice—that inherently Romantic paean to fleeting beauty and missed chances. [Telegraph]
We had to search extensively to find any usable instances of paeon on the web, but here’s one (from a great poet):
It has one stress, which falls on the only syllable, if there is only one, or, if there are more, then scanning as above, on the first, and so gives rise to four sorts of feet, a monosyllable and the so-called accentual Trochee, Dactyl, and the First Paeon. [Gerard Manley Hopkins via Project Gutenberg]
And these writers use peon correctly:
According to Parikh, today any salaried person, from peon to manager, is supposed to pay professional tax. [Daily News & Analysis]
These people come to think they are entitled to their positions and that the rest of us are reduced to mere peon status. [letter to Florida Times-Union]
