thraldom

English

Alternative forms

• thraldome (obsolete)
• thralldom

Etymology

From Middle English thraldom, þraldom. Compare Danish trældom, Norwegian trelldom, Swedish träldom. By surface analysis, thral(l) +‎ -dom.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈθɹɔːl.dəm/

Noun

thraldom (countable and uncountable, plural thraldoms)

1. (literary or puristic, otherwise archaic) A state of bondage, slavery, or subjugation to another person.

   Synonym: thrall

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     For ye into like thraldome me did throw,
     And kept from complishing the faith which I did owe.

   • c. 1625–1632 (date written), Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], The Broken Heart. A Tragedy. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Hugh Beeston, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, signatures B, verso – B2, recto:

     Beauteous Penthea […] is novv ſo yoak'd / To a moſt barbarous thraldome, miſery, / Affliction, that [s]he ſauors not humanity.

   • 1864, “A Fast-Day at Foxden”, in Atlantic Monthly Journal‎, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2006:

     The wretched thraldom was over,—and what had it left?

Translations

state of bondage, slavery, or subjugation to another person

Bulgarian: робство (bg) n (robstvo) Danish: trældom c French: esclavage (fr) m German: Sklaverei (de), Knechtschaft (de) Middle English: thraldom Norwegian: trelldom m Old Norse: þrældómr Spanish: servidumbre (es) f, esclavitud (es) f, subyugación f Swedish: träldom (sv) c

Middle English

Alternative forms

• tharldome, tharldon, tharledom, thraldam, thraldome, thralldam, thralledom, thyrldome, þraldam, þraldame, þraldom, þraldome, þraldum, þralldom, þreldom
• (early) ðraldom

Etymology

From thral +‎ -dom, possibly as a calque of Old Norse þrældómr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈθralˌdoːm/
• (reduced) IPA^(key): /ˈθraldam/, /ˈθraldum/

Noun

thraldom (uncountable)

1. Slavery, domination; the subjection of a person or group into bondage.
   • c. 1375, “Book I”, in Iohne Barbour, De geſtis bellis et uirtutibus domini Roberti de Brwyß […] (The Brus, Advocates MS. 19.2.2)‎, Ouchtirmunsye: Iohannes Ramsay, published 1489, folio 2, recto, lines 233-236; republished at Edinburgh: National Library of Scotland, c. 2010:

     Na he [þat] haß ay levyt fꝛe / May nocht knaw weill þe pꝛopyꝛte / Þe angyr na þe wꝛetchyt dome / [Þat] is couplyt to foule thyrldome

     No, one who's always lived free / won't really understand the feeling, / the suffering, or the painful fate / that's linked to foul slavery.

2. Obedience, submissiveness; the following of another's orders.
3. (religion) Spiritual subjection or control.

Descendants

• English: thraldom, thralldom
• Scots: thirldom

References

• “thraldọ̄̆m, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.