Servitude

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Servitude \Serv"i*tude\, n. [L. servitudo: cf. F. servitude.]
     1. The state of voluntary or compulsory subjection to a
        master; the condition of being bound to service; the
        condition of a slave; slavery; bondage; hence, a state of
        slavish dependence.
        [1913 Webster]


  
              You would have sold your king to slaughter,
              His princes and his peers to servitude. --Shak.
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              A splendid servitude; . . . for he that rises up
              early, and goes to bed late, only to receive
              addresses, is really as much abridged in his freedom
              as he that waits to present one.      --South.
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     2. Servants, collectively. [Obs.]
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              After him a cumbrous train
              Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude.
                                                    --Milton.
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     3. (Law) A right whereby one thing is subject to another
        thing or person for use or convenience, contrary to the
        common right.
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     Note: The object of a servitude is either to suffer something
           to be done by another, or to omit to do something, with
           respect to a thing. The easements of the English
           correspond in some respects with the servitudes of the
           Roman law. Both terms are used by common law writers,
           and often indiscriminately. The former, however, rather
           indicates the right enjoyed, and the latter the burden
           imposed. --Ayliffe. Erskine. E. Washburn.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     {Penal servitude}. See under {Penal}.
  
     {Personal servitude} (Law), that which arises when the use of
        a thing is granted as a real right to a particular
        individual other than the proprietor.
  
     {Predial servitude} (Law), that which one estate owes to
        another estate. When it related to lands, vineyards,
        gardens, or the like, it is called rural; when it related
        to houses and buildings, it is called urban.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  servitude
       n : state of subjection to an owner or master or forced labor
           imposed as punishment; "penal servitude"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  39 Moby Thesaurus words for "servitude":
     absolutism, attendance, bond service, bondage, captivity, control,
     debt slavery, deprivation of freedom, disenfranchisement,
     disfranchisement, domination, employ, employment, enslavement,
     enthrallment, feudalism, feudality, helotism, helotry,
     indentureship, ministration, ministry, peonage, restraint, serfdom,
     serfhood, servility, servitium, servitorship, slavery, subjection,
     subjugation, tendance, thrall, thralldom, tyranny, vassalage,
     villenage, yoke
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  SERVITUDE, civil law. A term which indicates the subjection of one person to 
  another person, or of a person to a thing, or of a thing to a person, or of 
  a thing to a thing. 
       2. Hence servitudes are divided into real, personal, and mixed. Lois 
  des Bat. P. 1, c. 1. 
       3. A real or predial servitude is a charge laid on an estate for the 
  use and utility of another estate belonging to another proprietor. Louis. 
  Code, art. 643. When used without any adjunct, the word servitude means a 
  real or predial servitude. Lois des Bat. P. 1, c. 1. 
       4. The subjection of one person to another is a purely personal 
  servitude; if it exists in the right of property which a person exercises 
  over another, it is slavery. When the subjection of one person to another is 
  not slavery, it consists simply in the right of requiring of another what he 
  is bound to do, or not to do; this right arises from all kinds of contracts 
  or quasi con tracts. Lois des Bat. P. 1, c. 1, art. 1. 
       5. The subjection of persons to things or of things to persons, are 
  mixed servitudes. Lois des Bat. P. 1, c. 1, art. 2. 
       6. Real servitudes are divided into rural and urban. Rural servitudes 
  are those which are due by an estate to another estate, such as the right of 
  passage over the serving estate, or that which owes the servitude, or to 
  draw water from it, or to water cattle there, or to take coal, lime and wood 
  from it, and the like. Urban servitudes are those which are established over 
  a building fur the convenience of another, such as the right of resting the 
  joists in the wall of the serving building, of opening windows which 
  overlook the serving estate, and the like. Dict. de Jurisp. tit. Servitudes. 
  See, generally, Lois des Bat. Part 1 Louis. Code, tit. 4; Code Civil, B. 2, 
  tit. 4; This Dict. tit. Ancient Lights; Easements; Ways; Lalaure, Des 
  Servitudes, passim.