Okuzeka
History vocabulary · Social History

Serf

Meaning in history, with examples

/sɜːf/nounCommon term

In history, serf means: In medieval and early modern Europe, a peasant who was legally bound to a lord's land, owed labour and dues, and could not leave without permission.

In Turkish: serf, toprak kölesi

How it is used

The system is called serfdom. Serfs were not slaves: they usually could not be sold apart from the land and had some rights. Serfdom faded in Western Europe in the late Middle Ages but lasted in Russia until 1861.

Example sentences

  1. Russian serfs were freed by the emancipation decree of 1861.

  2. A serf owed several days of labour each week on the lord's land.

Common collocations

  • the abolition of serfdom
  • emancipation of the serfs
  • serf labour
  • serfs and lords
  • feudalismA term for the social and political order of medieval Europe in which lords granted land to vassals in return for loyalty and military service, while peasants worked the land.
  • peasantA person who lives in the countryside and farms a small piece of land with family labour, often paying rent, taxes or labour services to a landowner or the state.
  • slaveryA system in which people are legally owned by others, forced to work without pay and denied basic freedoms, or the condition of being enslaved.
  • vassalIn medieval Europe, a person who held land from a lord in return for loyalty and service; more broadly, a ruler or state that accepts the authority of a stronger power.

More terms: Social History

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