| 释义 |
servitude|ˈsɜːvɪtjuːd|
Also 5–6 servytude, 6 Sc. schervitude.
[a. F. servitude, ad. late L. servitūdo, f. serv-us slave, serf: see -tude.]
1. The condition of being a slave or a serf, or of being the property of another person; absence of personal freedom. Often, and now usually, with additional notion of subjection to the necessity of excessive labour. Also, a (more or less rigorous) state of slavery or serfdom.
1471Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) II. 611 Or that we shall be ledde in seruytude & bondage in to strange contreyes. a1533Ld. Berners Huon xliii. 144, I had rather to be in seruitude there than to pay .iiii. drams to this Gyaunt. 1584B. R. tr. Herodotus ii. 107 Whiles shee abode in ægypt, shee was redeemed and acquit of her seruitude by one Charaxus, who purchased her libertie by a great summe of money. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 25 All the rest are shaved as a mark of their servitude. 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. xiii. I. 270 The greatest part of the nation was gradually reduced into a state of servitude. 1832H. Martineau Homes Abroad iv. 59 There was a probability of the woman marrying as soon as she could obtain remission of her servitude. 1845S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. iv. iv. II. 457 It enabled them to reduce the peasantry to a still harder state of servitude. 1910Encycl. Brit. XII. 40/1 In Hungary..the abolition of servitude in 1781–1782 carried with it the freedom of the Gipsies.
personified.1769Gray Install. Ode 6 Servitude that hugs her chain.
b. With reference to animals: Subjection to mankind. Now rare or Obs.
1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 268 For his soft Neck, a supple Collar make Of bending Osiers; and (with Time and Care Enur'd that easy Servitude to bear) Thy flatt'ring Method on the Youth pursue. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 376 The wild ass is even more asinine..than that bred in a state of domestic servitude.
c. The condition of being politically enslaved; subjection to a foreign power or to oppressive rule. † With of (or possessive): The state of being under the yoke of (a tyrant, a conqueror).
1471Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) I. 276 For hit is the destyne that Troye shall neuer be quyte of this right harde seruytude and thraldom vnto the tyme that [etc.]. 1477Earl Rivers Dictes (Caxton) 10 b, Al be it that they be in his seruitude yet ought he to his power to kepe them in fraunchyse and liberte. 1584Leycesters Commw. (1641) 5 The feare of servitude under forraine nations, may restraine them from such attempts. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iv. xxxvi. 160 b, These wretched Græcians are left vnder the miserable seruitude of these miscreated Mahometists. 1598Bacon Ess., Of Hon. & Reput. (Arb.) 72 Such as..deliuer their Countries from seruitude of strangers or tyrants. 1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 53 Nebuchadnezzar..carried the Jews themselves into most miserable servitude. 1716Addison Freeholder No. 43 ⁋2 A disturbed Liberty is better than a quiet servitude. a1727Newton Chronol. Amended ii. (1728) 217 Sesostris..reduced Judæa into servitude. 1904H. Paul Hist. Mod. Eng. II. 244 One wanted the liberation of Italy and the other her servitude.
d. transf. and fig. A condition resembling slavery; a state of degrading or burdensome subjection.
1474Caxton Chesse iii. i. (1883) 80 For the debilite and feblenes of corage that is broken in conscience by pryde Enuye or by couetyse is ryght seruytude. 1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 429/1 He lamenteth the miserable seruitude of the symple soules the poore sely women, because men will not suffer them to say masse. Ibid. 556/1 The deadly synne in the time of his fall, and of the seruitude and thraldom that he lyeth in. c1560A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) vii. 18 Thot this belappit body heir Be bound to scheruitude and thrall, My fathfull hairt is fre inteir And mynd to serf my lady at all. a1586Sidney Arcadia iii. (Sommer) 265 b, So did she..with the tribute of gifts, seeke to bring her mind into seruitude. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 178 This is servitude, To serve th'unwise, or him who hath rebelld Against his worthier. 1685Baxter Paraphr. N.T. 2 Tim. i. 9 Who hath saved us from our servitude to sin and Satan, and called us out of the World to be a Holy people. a1700Evelyn Diary 29 May 1677, This business being now at an end and myself deliver'd from that intolerable servitude and correspondence, I [etc.]. 1837Whewell Hist. Induct. Sci. I. iv. ii. §4. 276 The Arabians..tamely adopted the intellectual servitude of the nation which they conquered by their arms. a1862Buckle Civiliz. III. iv. (1869) 192 The religious servitude into which the Scotch fell..was a willing servitude.
†e. concr. Slaves or servants collectively. Obs.
1667Milton P.L. xii. 132 After him [Abraham] a cumbrous Train Of Herds, and Flocks, and numerous servitude.
2. The condition of being a servant, service; esp. domestic service. Now rare or Obs. (exc. as a contextual application of 1 d).
1651tr. Life Sarpi (1676) 10 He had likewise a very near familiarity with the Father Inquisitor,..with whom he continued servitude till his death. 1782E. N. Blower Geo. Bateman II. 89 The longer Cecilia lived upon a footing..with people of fortune, the more irksome Servitude would appear to her. 1792G. Wakefield Mem. (1804) I. 532 You would have been led into a more healthy situation, and might have procured, after a short servitude, some comfortable preferment. 1807Southey Spec. Eng. Poets II. 234 At the age of 24, married, in servitude, with little leisure, and no money or books, he set about his plan of improvement. 1817Salisb. & Winch. Jrnl. 29 Sept., A servant girl..was found drowned... She had been missing from her place of servitude since the preceding Thursday. 1822Galt Provost xxxviii, He sentenced her to be dismissed from her servitude with no more than the wage she had actually earned.
3. Apprenticeship. ? Obs.
1791in Langford Cent. B'ham Life (1868) I. 368 At the Expiration of the Servitude of these..Apprentices. 1799Hull Advert. 12 Oct. 2/4 John Brown..lately enticed..apprentices..from their servitude. 1805W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. III. 323 The duration of apprenticeship in this country is excessive. Five years ought to confer all the privileges of servitude. 1835App. Munic. Corpor. Rep. iii. 1667 Admission to the company [sc. Trinity House, Newcastle-on-Tyne] is acquired, 1st, by Birth; 2d, by Servitude; 3d, by Gift.
4. A person's (period of) service (in the Navy).
1818Tuckey's Narr. Exped. R. Zaire Introd. p. xlix, Though wanting eighteen months for the completion of his servitude to qualify him for a lieutenant's commission. 1836Marryat Three Cutters ii, During my servitude as first lieutenant.
5. Compulsory labour as a punishment for criminals. Chiefly penal servitude: see penal a.1 1 c.
free by servitude (Austral.): see quot. 1889.
1828P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 129 Those who have become free by servitude. 188919th Cent. Nov. 765 When you were a little familiar with colonial phraseology you at once understood that..Giles..was what was called a ‘free by servitude man’, i.e., a convict whose sentence of transportation had expired.
†6. Feudal or ecclesiastical subjection; vassalage, subordination. Obs.
c1500Melusine lix. 359 Thou holdest me for thy subget & woldest hold me in seruitude and thou hast therof nothing to shew. 1631Weever Anc. Funeral Mon. 559 S. Albans exempted from the iurisdiction of Lincoln... Robert was the next Abbot..and deliuered his Monastery from the seruitude of the Bishop of Lincolne.
†b. Feudal homage or service. Obs.
1498Coventry Leet Bk. 594 Of all maner Toll, pontage, pykage,..kayage and all oþer Imposicions, charges & seruitudes. c1500Melusine xxxvi. 249 For yf he escape grete shame shal be to vs in an euyl heure is he come in to oure land for to demande seruytude of vs. 1809N. Pinkney Trav. France 26 But there are some instances of personal service, and which are held to be legal..provided they relate to husbandry, and not to any servitude or attendance upon the person of the landlord.
7. In Civil Law (= L. servitus), and hence in Scots Law: a subjection or subserviency of property either: (1) to some definite person other than its owner (‘personal servitude’), or (2) to some definite property other than that of its owner for the benefit of the dominant property (‘prædial servitude’). In Scots Law the term is now in practice restricted to prædial servitude, which includes both the ‘easement’ and the ‘profit à prendre’ of English Law; it has been sometimes used by English lawyers to include both these kinds of rights.
A personal servitude (of which usufruct is an example) could be constituted either over movables or immovables; a prædial servitude (e.g. a right of way) could only be constituted over an immovable in favour of another immovable.
1592Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1814) III. 609/2 And siclyk exceptand and reservand the seruitude altius edes non tollendj prospectui et luminibus non officiendj constitute and imposit vpon ane tenement of land now pertening to mr Johnne nicolsoun aduocat. Ibid., And all vther seruitude quhatsumeuer. 1652Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 133 Hereupon Servitudes have been imposed, against the rearing of Houses higher then ordinary. 1681Stair Inst. Law Scot. ii. vii. (1693) 282 Servitudes are distinguished in Real and Personal, though neither of them be personal Rights; yet these Servitudes whereby one Tenement is subservient to another Tenement, and to persons only as having Right to, and for the use of that Tenement, are called Real Servitudes, as not being subservient directly to Persons, but to Things: And the other are called Personal; because thereby the Tenement is subservient directly to Persons, and not with respect to any other thing, as Life⁓rents, &c. Ibid. 287 Watering is a Servitude of taking Water, proper to one ground for the use of another. 1754Erskine Princ. Law Sc. (1809) 221 The owner of the servient tenement is not obliged, in a servitude of support, to repair it, unless the servitude be expressly so constituted. 1765–8― Inst. Law Scot. ii. ix. §12 The chief rural servitudes of the Roman law are, iter, actus, via, aquæductus, aquæhaustus, and jus pascendi pecoris. 1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 558 One great obstacle to improvements in agriculture is the Servitude of Thirlage. 1816G. J. Bell Comm. Laws Scot. (1826) I. 757 Servitudes, when of a positive nature, require possession to complete them; but negative servitudes are effectual without possession or registration. 1842J. Aiton Dom. Econ. (1857) 321 Ministers have frequently servitudes of peat, of feal, and divot, and of pasturage on particular estates or farms. 1872W. Guthrie G. J. Bell's Princ. Law Scot. (ed. 6) §981 Servitudes have been classed as Prædial and Personal... But, practically, the only servitudes in Scotland are Prædial. 1888W. D. Edwards Law Property in Land ii. vi. 271 Easements resemble rights of common appendant and appurtenant, in that they are annexed to the ownership of land for its benefit. They are, therefore, sometimes classed with such rights of common, under the name of ‘servitudes’. 1900Act 63 & 64 Vict. c. 93 title, To acquire lands and servitudes for the purposes of such water supply.
fig.1720E. Erskine Serm. Wks. (1791) 59/2 This earthly house, it lies under many servitudes, and the believer..pays a dear mail or rent for his quarters.
b. attrib.
1838W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. s.v. Road, A public-road may be used by all the Queen's subjects, whereas a servitude-road can be legally used only by the dominant proprietor and his family. 1884Watson in Law Times Rep. LI. 802/1 Servitude rights burdening the corporeal lands taken by the company. |