serf

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun (Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord

From Middle English serf, from Old French serf, from Latin servus (“slave, serf, servant”).

Serves him right, doesn't it?'' — The Adventures of Reddy Fox, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo) Burgess
Who made them serfs of the soil? — Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau
Forty thousand serfs and millions of rubles! — War and Peace, Leo, graf Tolstoy

helot, villein

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