serf
/səːf
/noun
An agricultural labourer bound by the feudal system who was tied to working on his lord’s estate.Here in the Thirty Years War, the seigneurial system collapsed and serfs refused to perform labour services....
- One could argue that the feudal system of lords and serfs was a form of sharecropping.
- In feudal times the serfs had to rely on the beneficence of the lord of the manor.
Synonyms
bondsman, slave, servant, menial, villein, thrall, helot, ceorl;
vassal, liegeman
Derivatives
serfage
- The Village Assemblies, too, have become worse than they were in the days of serfage.
- When the Emancipation question was raised there was a considerable diversity of opinion as to the effect which the abolition of serfage would have on the material interests of the two classes directly concerned.
serfhood
Origin
Late 15th century (in the sense 'slave'): from Old French, from Latin servus 'slave'.