Serf

n.

1.

A servant or slave employed in husbandry, and in some countries attached to the soil and transferred with it, as formerly in Russia. In England, at least from the reign of Henry II, one only, and that the inferior species [of villeins], existed . . . But by the customs of France and Germany, persons in this abject state seem to have been called serfs, and distinguished from villeins, who were only bound to fixed payments and duties in respect of their lord, though, as it seems, without any legal redress if injured by him. - Hallam.

Noun

1.

serf - (Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord Synonyms: helot, villein

SERF. During the feudal times certain persons who were bound to perform very onerous duties towards others, were so called. Poth. Des Personnes, p. 1, t. 1, a. 6, s. 4. There is this essential difference between a serf and a slave; the serf was bound simply to labor on the soil where he was born, without any right to go elsewhere without the consent of his lord; but he was free to act as he pleased in his daily action: the slave on the contrary is the property of his master, who may require him to act as he pleases in every respect, and who may sell him as a chattel. Lepage, Science du Droit, c. 3, art. 2, Sec. 2.

apple-polisher, ass-licker, backscratcher, backslapper, bondmaid, bondman, bondslave, bondsman, bondswoman, bootlick, bootlicker, brown-nose, brownie, captive, chattel, chattel slave, churl, clawback, concubine, courtier, creature, cringer, debt slave, dependent, dupe, fawner, feudatory, flatterer, flunky, follower, footlicker, galley slave, groveler, handshaker, hanger-on, helot, homager, inferior, instrument, jackal, kowtower, lackey, led captain, lickspit, lickspittle, liege, liege man, liege subject, mealymouth, minion, myrmidon, odalisque, peon, puppet, retainer, servant, slave, spaniel, stooge, subject, subordinate, suck, sycophant, theow, thrall, timeserver, toad, toady, tool, truckler, tufthunter, underling, understrapper, vassal, villein, yeoman, yes-man