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serfdom

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serf

  [surf]
Use serfdom in a Sentence
–noun
1. a person in a condition of servitude, required to render services to a lord, commonly attached to the lord's land and transferred with it from one owner to another.
2. a slave.
Origin:
1475–85; < MF < L servus slave

Related forms:
serfdom, serfhood, serfage, noun

Synonyms:
1. vassal, villein, peasant.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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serf   (sûrf)   
n.  

  1. A member of the lowest feudal class, attached to the land owned by a lord and required to perform labor in return for certain legal or customary rights.

  2. An agricultural laborer under various similar systems, especially in 18th- and 19th-century Russia and eastern Europe.

  3. A person in bondage or servitude.


[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin servus, slave.]
serf'dom n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

serf

Under feudalism, a peasant bound to his lord's land and subject to his lord's will, but entitled to his lord's protection.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

serf 
1483, "slave," from M.Fr. serf, from L. servum (nom. servus) "slave" (see serve). Fallen from use in original sense by 18c. Meaning "lowest class of cultivators of the soil in continental European countries" is from 1611. Use by modern writers with ref. to medieval Europeans first recorded 1761 (contemporary Anglo-L. records used nativus, villanus or servus). Serfdom first attested 1850.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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