indentured
/ɪnˈdɛn.tʃəd/adjective, noun, verb
Bound by contract or subject to an indenture
From English, from Anglo-Norman and Old French indenture (A contract binding parties).
Lineage
indenture
-ed
Selected stage
Modern English
indentured — Bound by contract or subject to an indenture
The story
An indentured person is bound by a contract, commonly one requiring work for a specified time. The word is formed from indenture and the English suffix -ed, which also makes it the past tense and past participle of indenture.
Indenture came through Anglo-Norman endenture from Old French endenteure, related to endenter, “to dent.” The contract’s name is explained by the toothed cut used to divide duplicate copies: their irregular edges could be fitted together to help confirm that the documents matched. Indentures served for labor and apprenticeship as well as land agreements and other contracts. In the United States, many European immigrants worked under indentures in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to pay for transportation. A 2022 book title, Enslaved, Indentured, Free, uses the adjective to describe Black people who remained bound to labor in territory described as free.
Words from the same roots
indenture · English, from Anglo-Norman and Old French, ‘A contract binding parties, often for work.’
Derivedindenture, apprentice, contract, obligated, servitude
-ed · English, ‘Forms past participles and related adjectives.’
Derivedcontracted, obliged, bound
Sources
- Wikipediaindentured
- Wiktionaryindentured, indenture