serf

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sɜːf/ (UK); /sɝf/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French serf (“vassal, servant, slave”),^[2][3][4][5] from Latin servus (“slave”) (accusative servum),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} see serve.^[3][4][6] Weekley thought the Latin word originally meant a keeper of cattle, from servāre (“to preserve”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A slave or bondman (1483 in the OED and Barnhart; late 15th century in Etymonline).^[8][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The word had fallen out of use in this sense by the 18th century^[4][7] but was revived.^[7] From 1611, after French usage, it named the lowest class of cultivators of the soil in Poland, Russia and other European countries, living in a modified slavery.^[8][3][4][5] From 1761 modern writers applied it to the medieval peasant bound to the land and passed with it from one lord to the next.^[8][4][9] By transfer it is used of anyone in servitude (1847).^[8][2] Serfdom is recorded from 1850.^[3]

Timeline

• 1483 – a slave, bondman.^[8][3]
• 1611 – a peasant of continental Europe in servitude.^[8][3][5]
• 1761 – a medieval villein.^[8][4]
• 1850 – serfdom.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A member of a servile class in medieval Europe, bound to the land and owned or controlled by a lord, and transferred with the land to a new owner.
2. Any person in servitude; a slave.

Word family

• serfdom
• enserf

Related words

• service
• servile
• servitor
• servitude
• servo
• serve
• servant
• villein
• vassal
• thrall

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins