Forms: 3–6 bonde, (5 bounde, 6 band(e, bund), 3– bond. [Early ME. bonde:—OE. bonda, bunda husbandman, householder, husband, a. ON. bónde(-i), contr. of bóande, búande ‘occupier and tiller of the soil, peasant, husbandman; husband,’ ppl. sb. from búa, bóa to dwell, L. colĕre, and thus equivalent in sense and etymology to Ger. bauer. In Iceland the bónde was a peasant proprietor ‘including all owners of land from the petty freeholder to the franklin. In the more despotic Norway and Denmark, bóndi became a word of contempt, denoting the common low people, and in mod.Da. bönder means plebs. In the Icelandic Commonwealth the word has a good sense, and is often used of the foremost men … this notion of the word (a franklin) still prevails in the mind of Icelanders’ (Vigf.). In OE., bonda, bunda appears first in the Laws of Cnut, apparently in the same sense as in ON., and nearly, if not entirely, = OE. ceorl. When, through the effects of the Norman Conquest, the ceorl sank from the position of a free-man tilling his own land to that of a tenant bound to certain services to a lord (see Freeman, Norm. Conq., V. 477), bonde became equivalent to ‘villain,’ and so at length to ‘serf, slave’ (sense 3), and was thenceforth evidently associated with BOND sb.1 and BOUND. Hence the occas. variant bande: but bounde may represent the OE. variant bunda.]
A. sb. Obs.
† 1. Householder, master of the house; husband. (Only in OE.)
c. 1025. Laws of Cnut, pol. 6 (Bosw.). Swa ymbe friðes bote, swa ðam bondan [v.r. bundan] si selost. Ibid., pol. 70. And ʓif se bonda [bunda] beclypod wære. Ibid., pol. 74. Ne mæʓ nan wif hire bondan [bundan] forbeodan, ðæt he ne móte, [etc.] [the Latin versions have bonda i.e., paterfamilias.]
† 2. Peasant, churl. Often used as a designation of rank or condition below burgess (and then also put collectively, or (?) as adjective).
c. 1205. Lay., 15291. Þer wes of Salesburi an oht bonde [c. 1275 Þar was a bond] icumen.
c. 1275. Passion of our Lord, in O. E. Misc., 56. Heo … fullede kinges, eorles & bondes.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 2128. Barouns, burgeys & bonde & alle oþer burnes.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 201. Trewe burgeis and bonde to nauht hue bringeþ ofte.
a. 1450[?]. Chester Pl., II. 187. When I soughte silver … Of baron, burges, or of bande.
† 3. Base vassal, serf [transl. med.L. nativus]; one in bondage to a superior; a slave; also fig. (In late examples blending with the adjective use.)
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 971. To long ichaue ben hir bond.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 4188. Sel him forþ to yone chapmen … to be þair bonde [earlier MSS. thrall] for euer-lastande.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XI. 263. A bastarde, a bounde, a begeneldes douhter.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 43. Bonde as a man or woman, servus serva.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 83. A mayde seruaunt, thrall and bonde.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 499. Tha war maid to be bondis and thrall.
1583. T. Watson, Poems (1870), 76. I liue her bond, which neither is my foe, Nor frend.
1618. Bolton, Florus (1636), 131. A very base fellow, unknown whether a free man, or a bond.
B. adj.
1. In a state of serfdom or slavery; not free; in bondage (to). Also fig. arch.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 171. Lered men & lay, fre & bond of toune.
c. 1440. Partonope, 1497. The bonde kynred I made free.
1483. Cath. Angl., 36. Bonde, natiuus, seruilis.
1526. Tindale, John viii. 33. And were never bonde to eny man.
1551–6. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., 125. He restoreth the bonde persone from seruitude to libertie.
1571. Ascham, Scholem. (1863), 70. Makyng them selves bonde to vanitie and vice.
1611. Bible, 1 Cor. xii. 13. Whether wee bee Iewes or Gentiles, whether wee bee bond or free.
a. 1625. Boys, Wks. (1630), 115. Christ was made bond vnto the law, to redeeme them that were bound vnto the law.
1866. Ferrier, Grk. Philos., I. x. 240. Sensation … is bond, not free.
† 2. Of or pertaining to slaves; servile, slavish.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. xi. (1495), 195. A seruyng woman of bonde condycion.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W.), 73. This feare is called the seruyle feare, or the bonde feare.
a. 1567. Coverdale, Bk. Death, II. ii. 223. Is it not a bonde, gredy and voluptuous thinge to spoyle the deade coarse.
