bondservant

English

Etymology

From bond +‎ servant.

Noun

bondservant (plural bondservants)

1. An indentured servant.
   • 1901, Charles W. Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition‎^[1]:

     The captain was an upstart, a product of the democratic idea operating upon the poor white man, the descendant of the indentured bondservant and the socially unfit.

   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     Would the lass but consent to go abroad in the unhallowed place at this awful season and hour of the night, she was as firmly handfasted to the Devil as if she had signed a bond with her own blood; for then, it seemed, the forces of good fled far away, the world for one hour was given over to its ancient prince, and the man or woman who willingly sought the spot was his bondservant forever.

   • The New King James Version of the New Testament translates the word δοῦλος (doulos) as "bondservant" in 2 Peter 1:1 and Jude 1:1