serf

English

Etymology

From Middle English serf, from Old French serf, from Latin servus (“slave, serf, servant”), perhaps of Etruscan origin

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɜːf/
• IPA^(key): /sɝf/
• Homophone: surf (in accents with the fern-fir-fur merger)
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)f

Noun

serf (plural serfs)

1. a partially free peasant of a low hereditary class, slavishly attached to the land owned by a feudal lord and required to perform labour, enjoying minimal legal or customary rights
2. a similar agricultural labourer in 18th and 19th century Europe
3. (strategy games) a worker unit

   Synonyms: peasant, peon, villager

Derived terms

• serfage
• serfdom
• serfhood
• serfish
• serfism

 

Related terms

• service
• servile
• servitor
• servitude
• servo

 

Translations

semifree peasant

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: ճորտ (hy) (čort)
• Belarusian: прыго́нны m (pryhónny), прыго́нная f (pryhónnaja)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: serf (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 農奴／农奴 (zh) (nóngnú), 农奴 (zh) (nóngnú)

• Czech: nevolník m
• Danish: livegen c
• Dutch: horige (nl), laat (nl), lijfeigene (nl), serf m or f
• Erzya: модаре m (modaŕe), модарява f (modaŕava)
• Estonian: pärisori
• Finnish: maaorja (fi)
• French: serf (fr) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Leibeigener m
• Greek: δουλοπάροικος (el) m (doulopároikos), (historical) κολλίγας m (kollígas)
• Hebrew: צמית (he) m (tsamit), אריס m (aris)
• Hungarian: jobbágy (hu)
• Irish: seirfeach m, daoirseach m, daor m (familiar)

  Old Irish: dóer m

• Italian: servo (it) m
• Japanese: 農奴 (ja) (のうど, nōdo), 小作人 (こさくにん, kosakunin)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 농노 (ko) (nongno) (農奴 (ko))
• Macedonian: кмет m (kmet), закре́постен се́ланец m (zakréposten sélanec), кре́посен се́ланец m (kréposen sélanec)
• Maori: rōpā, poroteke
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: leilending m, livegen

  Nynorsk: leiglending m, liveigen

• Polish: chłop pańszczyźniany m, kmieć (pl) m
• Portuguese: servo (pt) m
• Romanian: iobag (ro) m, șerb (ro) m
• Russian: крепостно́й (ru) m (krepostnój), крепостна́я (ru) f (krepostnája), холо́п (ru) m (xolóp) (also pejorative)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кме̏т m, кмѐтица f

  Roman: kmȅt (sh) m, kmètica (sh) f

• Slovene: tlačan m
• Spanish: siervo (es) m
• Swedish: livegen (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Tibetan: མངའ་འབངས (mnga' 'bangs), མངའ་ཞབས (mnga' zhabs), དུད་ཆང (dud chang), བྲན (bran), བྲན་གཡོག (bran g.yog), འབངས་འཁོར ('bangs 'khor), མི་སེར (mi ser)
• Ukrainian: кріпосни́й m (kriposnýj), кріпосна́ f (kriposná), кріпа́к (uk) m (kripák)
• Vietnamese: nông nô (vi) (農奴)
• Welsh: taeog

See also

• slave

Anagrams

• ESRF, FERS, Refs, erfs, f***ers, refs

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Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch serf, from Old French serf, from Latin servus.

Noun

serf m (plural serven, diminutive serfje n)

1. a serf (semifree peasant obliged to remain on the lord's land and to perform extensive chores for him)

   Synonyms: horige, laat, lijfeigene

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French

Etymology

From Middle French serf, from Old French serf, from Latin servus (“slave, serf, servant”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser-wo- (“guardian”), or perhaps of Etruscan origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (predominant) /sɛʁf/, (rarely) /sɛʁ/
• Homophones: cerf, sers, sert

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

serf m (plural serfs, feminine serve)

1. a serf (semifree peasant obliged to remain on the lord's land and to perform extensive chores for him)

Adjective

serf (feminine serve, masculine plural serfs, feminine plural serves)

1. being or like a serf, semifree

Related terms

• sergent
• servant
• service m
• servile
• servir (verb)
• servitude

 

Further reading

• “serf”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• fers

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Mauritian Creole

Etymology

From French cerf.

Noun

serf

1. deer

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Middle French

Etymology

From Old French serf.

Noun

serf m (plural serfs)

1. serf (semifree peasant)

Descendants

• French: serf

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Old French

Etymology 1

From Latin servus.

Noun

serf oblique singular, m (oblique plural sers, nominative singular sers, nominative plural serf)

1. serf (semifree peasant)

Descendants

• Middle French: serf
  • French: serf
• → English: serf

Etymology 2

See servir

Verb

serf

1. first-person singular present indicative of servir

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Seychellois Creole

Etymology

From French cerf.

Noun

serf

1. deer

References

• Danielle D’Offay et Guy Lionnet, Diksyonner Kreol - Franse / Dictionnaire Créole Seychellois - Français