Serf vs Nief - What's the difference?
serf | nief |
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.
A serf or bondsman born into servitude.
* 1886 , "The Fight at the Pass of Coleshill", The Red Dragon "Notes and Queries", page 471
(chiefly, Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) A fist.
*1934 , (Lewis Grassic Gibbon), Grey Granite'', Polygon 2006 (''A Scots Quair ), p. 597:
*:Ake thought if ever he was walking alone on a dark-like night and Jimmy came on him, he with his bare nieves and Jimmy with a knife, he'd stand as much chance of getting home safe as a celluloid cat that had strayed into hell….
* 1989 , (Anthony Burgess), The Devil's Mode :
* 2004 , Jeff Silverman, The Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told , p. 160:
As nouns the difference between serf and nief
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 nief is a serf or bondsman born into servitude or nief can be (chiefly|scotland|ireland|northern england) a fist.serf
English
Noun
(en noun)Synonyms
* (strategy games) peasant, peon, villagerDerived terms
* serfage * serfdom * serfhood * serfish * serfismSee also
* slaveAnagrams
* ----nief
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl), from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- That is, because the girl was his nief , or bondwoman, the daughter of one of his villains
Alternative forms
* neifEtymology 2
From Old Norse hnefi'', ''nefi , of unknown origin.Noun
(en-noun)- Nestorius exploded at that and hit out. He roared and dismissed the class, hitting out with his old mottled gnarled niefs .
- "But t' Maister can stop and hit rarely. Happen he'll mak' him joomp when he gets his nief upon him."