villeinage

American  

[vil-uh-nij] / ˈvɪl ə nɪdʒ /

Or villainage,

noun

1. the tenure by which a villein held land and tenements from a lord.

2. the condition or status of a villein.

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villeinage British  

/ ˈvɪlənɪdʒ /

noun

1. the status and condition of a villein

2. the tenure by which a villein held his land

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Etymology

Origin of villeinage

1275–1325; Middle English vilenage < Anglo-French, Old French. See villein, -age

Example Sentences

In spite of the prayers and resolutions and acts of the early fathers, a form of slavery grew up here, but it was milder than the English villeinage: it resembled apprenticeship except in the duration.

From Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from the days of Slavery to the Present Time by Dunbar-Nelson, Alice Moore

The facts are all against them; these showing it a scheme of villeinage, more oppressive than the European serfdom of the Middle Ages.

From The Death Shot A Story Retold by Reid, Mayne

Now, if the weaker party remained to brave the attack and was conquered, he was reduced to a state of villeinage or of dependence more or less complete.

From The Communes of Lombardy from the VI. to the X. Century An Investigation of the Causes Which Led to the Development Of Municipal Unity Among the Lombard Communes. by Williams, William Klapp

The fathers early enacted that there should be neither bond slaves nor villeinage amongst us except captives taken in just wars and those condemned judicially to serve.

From Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from the days of Slavery to the Present Time by Dunbar-Nelson, Alice Moore

In Scotland they had just been emancipated from the status of villeinage.

From Recent Developments in European Thought by Various