serf

Forms

serf m (plural serfs, feminine serve)^[1] Old French serv and serw (late 10th century); serf was remade from the oblique plural serfs.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French serf, inherited from Latin servus (“slave, of a slave”).^[3][4][5] In Late Latin the word also meant a servant of God.^[3] The modern form, recorded about 1080, was rebuilt on the oblique plural serfs of the older serv.^[2]

Cognate with Italian servo, Old Occitan serf, Spanish siervo and Portuguese servo.^[6][7] The origin of the Latin word is unknown.^[2] One view links it to an Indo-European root meaning “to watch over”, with a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European *ser-wo- (“guardian”), as in servō (“to keep, protect”);^[2][1] Benveniste proposed instead a borrowing from Etruscan, where family names of similar shape occur.^[2] Littré rejects the Roman jurists' derivation from the verb for “to keep” (the war captive kept alive) and takes serviō (“to serve”) to be formed from the noun.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Vie de saint Léger (second half of the 10th century) serw means a servant.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

From the end of the 11th century the noun named the feudal serf, a person without full personal freedom who was bound to a piece of land; the Chanson de Roland has it about 1100.^[3][2] The adjective, “being a serf, servile”, is recorded from about 1220.^[3] About 1170 the word also meant anyone not of free condition, and in 1541 Calvin used it in a religious sense, serf de péché “slave of sin”.^[2][3] The sense “slave” of antiquity was taken up again by literary writers in the 18th century, though rarely, because esclave had taken that place.^[5]

By likening a serf's tie to his lord with a man's tie to God, the word named religious men and lay servants of monasteries (early 13th century), and later a religious order.^[2] Proudhon wrote of the serf du capital in 1849.^[3] English borrowed serf from Old French in the late 15th century, at first meaning “servant, slave”.^[8]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – Serw “servant” appears in the Vie de saint Léger.^[3]
• c. 1100 – The Chanson de Roland uses it for the feudal serf.^[3]
• c. 1220 – First record as an adjective, in the Reclus de Molliens.^[3]
• 1541 – Calvin writes serf de péché.^[3]
• 18th century – Literary French takes it up again for the slave of antiquity.^[5]
• 1849 – Proudhon's serf du capital.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) Under feudalism, a serf: a person bound to the land, without full personal freedom and owing dues and services to a lord.^[9][3]
2. By analogy, a serf of other countries, such as the peasants of old Russia: les serfs de la Russie tsariste.^[9]
3. (rare) A slave.^[3][7]

Adjective

1. Being a serf, or belonging to the state of servage: une famille serve.^[10][7]
2. (figurative, literary) Servile, subject to another or to a passion.^[10][3]

Word family

• servage
• asservir
• asservissement

Related words

• servir
• esclave
• Latin servus
• English serf

Usage notes

The final ⟨f⟩ is usually sounded, but some speakers say /sɛʁ/, like cerf;^[7][10] Littré notes that most pronounce it in the plural and that Palsgrave already recorded the silent form in the 16th century.^[7][10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 548b
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse