bondage

[ bon-dij ]
See synonyms for bondage on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. slavery or involuntary servitude; serfdom.

  2. the state of being bound by or subjected to some external power or control.

  1. the state or practice of being physically restrained, as by being tied up, chained, or put in handcuffs, for sexual gratification.

  2. Early English Law. personal subjection to the control of a superior; villeinage.

Origin of bondage

1
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Anglo-Latin bondagium. See bond2, -age

synonym study For bondage

1. See slavery.

word story For bondage

Bondage is a word that goes back to Middle English, borrowed both from Anglo-French bondage and from Anglo-Latin bondagium.
The element bond- comes from the Middle English noun bond(e) “tenant farmer (as opposed to a freeholder),” which developed from Old English bonda “husband, householder, head of a family,” a borrowing from Old Norse bōndi, from older boandi “freeborn farmer,” a noun use of the present participle of the verb būa, bōa “to live; make ready, prepare.” The suffix -age comes partly from Anglo-French and Old French -age, from the Medieval Latin noun suffix -āgium, from Latin -āticum.
The sense “the state or practice of being physically restrained for sexual gratification” first appeared in the 1960s.

Other words for bondage

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

British Dictionary definitions for bondage

bondage

/ (ˈbɒndɪdʒ) /


noun
  1. slavery or serfdom; servitude

  2. Also called: villeinage (in medieval Europe) the condition and status of unfree peasants who provided labour and other services for their lord in return for holdings of land

  1. a sexual practice in which one partner is physically bound

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012