different between servitude vs peonage

English

Etymology

From Middle French servitude, from Latin servit?s, from Latin servus (“slave”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?s??v?t?u?d/, /-tju?d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?s?v?tud/

Noun

servitude (countable and uncountable, plural servitudes)

1. The state of being a slave; slavery.
   • 1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China

     In spite of the importance of this route it remained until a few years ago very insecure. Overhung almost its entire length by the inaccessible fastnesses of Lololand, the passing caravans dared journey only with convoy, and even then were frequently overwhelmed by raiders from the hills, who carried off both trader and goods into the mountains, the former to lifelong servitude.
2. (law) A qualified beneficial interest severed or fragmented from the ownership of an inferior property and attached to a superior property or to some person other than the owner; the most common form is an easement.
3. (dated) Service rendered in the army or navy.
4. (obsolete) Servants collectively.
5. (archaic) The act of serving (food or drink, etc.); service.
   • 1857, Journal of Australasia (volume 2, page 38)

     The usual routine of confections and pastry follows, after which a galore of fruits of all kinds, with a chassè of excellent Mocha, the immediate servitude of which, after good dining, is, I think, universally acknowledged to be a great exhiliration^[sic].

Translations

See also

• servitude on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• serfdom

Anagrams

• divesture

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin servit?d?, from Latin servus.

Noun

servitude f (plural servitudes)

1. servitude, thralldom

Related terms

• serf
• servir

See also

• esclavage

Further reading

• “servitude” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin servitus, servitutem, probably a borrowing.

Noun

servitude f (plural servitudes)

1. servitude (the state of being a serf or slave)

   Synonym: servidão

Related terms

• servir

English

Etymology

From peon +? -age.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pi??n?d?/

Noun

peonage (plural peonages)

1. The state of being a peon; the system of paying back debt through servitude and labour; loosely, any system of involuntary servitude.
   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, p. 217:

     But there was work to be done down in the Salinas Valley where César Chávez was organizing the grape pickers and lettuce workers out of their state of un-unionized peonage.

   • 2014, Michael Nava, The City of Palaces, Terrace Books 2014, p. 191:

     "It wasn't just the crowds," Luis said softly. "I saw with my own eyes that Díaz's México is a Potemkin village, Miguel. The México profundo where the poor are so hungry they eat grass and bark. I met Indians whose land is being devoured by Díaz's cronies, entire towns swallowed up, and the people reduced to peonage. I talked to Mexican railroad workers who are paid a fraction of what the American owners pay their own countrymen for the same work."

Related terms

• peonage slavery on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Translations

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “peonage”, in Online Etymology Dictionary