House-Elf Justice - Nature of Elf Enslavement

[festuco]

No: HPFGUIDX 129652


> I notice that you abandoned your coinage "voluntary servitude" and 
> switched to "honourable service". This is good thing 


I'm sorry, but a servitude and service are two different things, and a
servant is not somebody in servitude. I read a lot of fantasy and the
normal word for a domestic servant is just servant. Somebody who gets
paid to do the housework. Servitude is another word for slavery, or
for a prison sentence. Semantically related but nothing else. 

Lets ask Oxford for the meaning of servant:

3 results found in the Compact Oxford English Dictionary - Perform
another search
Page 1 of 1

1 civil servant
English dictionary entry
2 public servant
English dictionary entry
3 servant
English dictionary entry 

Ok, number 3 is what we are looking for here: 

servant

  • noun 1 a person employed to perform domestic duties in a household
or as a personal attendant. 2 a person regarded as providing support
or service for an organization or person: a government servant.

  — ORIGIN Old French, `person serving', from servir `to serve'.

Next step: to serve:

 1 break
English dictionary entry
2 re-serve
English dictionary entry
3 serve
English dictionary entry 

Again, number 3:

serve

  • verb 1 perform duties or services for. 2 be employed as a member
of the armed forces. 3 spend (a period) in office, in an
apprenticeship, or in prison. 4 present food or drink to. 5 attend to
(a customer in a shop). 6 be of use in fulfilling (a purpose). 7 treat
in a specified way. 8 (of food or drink) be enough for. 9 Law formally
deliver (a summons or writ) to the person to whom it is addressed. (in
tennis and other racket sports) hit the ball or shuttlecock to begin
play for each point of a game. (of a male breeding animal) copulate
with (a female). 

• noun 1 an act of serving in tennis, badminton, etc. 2 Austral.
informal a reprimand.

  — PHRASES serve someone right be someone's deserved punishment or
misfortune. serve one's (or its) turn be useful.

And now finally we find the link with slavery:

  — ORIGIN Latin servire, from servus `slave'.

The meaning has changed quite a lot over the centuries. So to equite a
servant with a slave may be correct in ancient Rome, it is not correct
in modern day England. 

Dobby certainly is a servant. He does domestic work and gets paid for
it. He is not a slave. 

Gerry