serf

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sɜːf/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /sɝf/
• Homophone: surf (fern–fir–fur merger)
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)f

serf (plural serfs)

1. A partially free peasant of a low hereditary class, attached like a slave 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

• slave

• ESRF, FERS, RFEs, Refs, erfs, refs

Inherited from Latin servus.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈserf]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈseɾf]

serf m (plural serfs, feminine serva, feminine plural serves)

1. serf

• servitud

• “serf”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

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

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: halfvrije, horige, laat, lijfeigene

Inherited 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.

• IPA^(key): (usually) /sɛʁf/, (rarely) /sɛʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: serfs (general), cerf, cerfs (some speakers), serre, serrent, serres, sers, sert (rare form only)

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)

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

1. being or like a serf, semifree

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

• fers

From French cerf.

serf

1. deer

From Old French serf.

serf m (plural serfs)

1. serf (semifree peasant)

• French: serf

From Arabic صرف (ṣarf, “expense”).

• IPA^(key): /sɛɾf/

serf f

1. expense, cost

From Latin servus.

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

1. serf (semifree peasant)

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

See servir

serf

1. first-person singular present indicative of servir

From French cerf.

serf

1. deer

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