Villein

n.

1.

(Feudal Law) See Villain, 1.

Noun

1.

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

VILLEIN, Eng. law. A species of slave during the feudal times.'
     2. The feudal villein of the lowest order was unprotected as to property, and subjected to the post ignoble services; but his circumstances were very different from the slave of the southern states, for no person was, in the eye of the law, a villein, except as to his master; in relation to all other persons he was a freeman. Litt. Ten. s. 189, 190; Hallam's View of the Middle Ages, vol. i. 122, 124; vol. ii. 199.

bondmaid, bondman, bondslave, bondsman, bondswoman, captive, chattel, chattel slave, churl, concubine, debt slave, galley slave, helot, homager, liege, liege man, liege subject, odalisque, peon, serf, servant, slave, subject, theow, thrall, vassal