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Serf vs Commoner - What's the difference?

serf | commoner |

As nouns the difference between serf and commoner

is that serf is a partially free peasant of a low hereditary class, slavishly attached to the land owned by a feudal lord and required to perform labour, enjoying minimal legal or customary rights while commoner is a member of the common people who holds no title or rank.

As an adjective commoner is

(common).

serf

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A partially free peasant of a low hereditary class, slavishly attached to the land owned by a feudal lord and required to perform labour, enjoying minimal legal or customary rights.
  • A similar agricultural labourer in 18th and 19th century Europe.
  • (strategy games) A worker unit.

    • Synonyms

    * (strategy games) peasant, peon, villager

    Derived terms

    * serfage * serfdom * serfhood * serfish * serfism

    Related terms

    * service * servile * servitor * servitude * servo

    See also

    * slave

    Anagrams

    * ----

    commoner

    English

    Etymology 1

    Adjective

    (head)
  • (common)
    • Usage notes
    * The potential for confusion with use of the noun as an adjective, especially in the UK, makes this form less desirable. It is much less commonly used than "more common".

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (wikipedia commoner) (en noun)
  • A member of the common people who holds no title or rank.
  • (British) Someone who is not of noble rank.
  • * Hallam
    • All below them [the peers], even their children, were commoners , and in the eye of the law equal to each other.
  • (British, at Oxbridge universities) An undergraduate who does not hold either a scholarship or an exhibition.
  • (obsolete, UK, Oxford University) A student who is not dependent on any foundation for support, but pays all university charges; at Cambridge called a pensioner.
  • Someone holding common rights because of residence or land ownership in a particular manor, especially rights on common land.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • Much good land might be gained from forests and from other commonable places, so as always there be a due care taken that the poor commoners have no injury.
  • (obsolete) One sharing with another in anything.
    • (Fuller)
  • (obsolete) A prostitute.
    • (Shakespeare)