corvée

American  

[kawr-vey] / kɔrˈveɪ /

noun

1. unpaid labor for one day, as on the repair of roads, exacted by a feudal lord.

2. an obligation imposed on inhabitants of a district to perform services, as repair of roads, bridges, etc., for little or no remuneration.

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corvée British  

/ ˈkɔːveɪ /

noun

1. European history a day's unpaid labour owed by a feudal vassal to his lord

2. the practice or an instance of forced labour

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Etymology

Origin of corvée

1300–50; Middle English < Middle French < Late Latin corrogāta contribution, collection, noun use of feminine of Latin corrogātus (past participle of corrogāre to collect by asking), equivalent to cor- cor- + rogā ( re ) to ask + -tus past participle suffix

Example Sentences

To do so, they resurrected corvée, a 19th-century Haitian law for indentured labor.

From New York Times • May 20, 2022

Bavarian soldiers in greasy corvée lumbered among the charred chaos searching for their dead.

From Lorraine A romance by Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William)

They had in 1756 remonstrated with the king against the corvée, declaring that the condition of the peasantry of France was "a thousand times less tolerable than the condition of the slaves in America."

From Life of Adam Smith by Rae, John

On Judah Jehoiakim imposed the cruel corvée, which in our day Ismail Pasha imposed upon Egypt.

From Jeremiah : Being The Baird Lecture for 1922 by Smith, George Adam, Sir

He identifies arbja with the Slavonic, rab, servant, slave, and arbeit with rabota, corvée, supposing that sons and heirs were the first natural slaves.

From Lectures on The Science of Language by Müller, Max