House-Elf Justice - Nature of Elf Enslavement

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 129656

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

 Gerry:
> 
> 
> 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. 

a_svirn:


But that exactly what I said right after where you snipped: "This is 
good thing since `servitude' and `slavery' is pretty much the same 
thing".  So why are you sorry? We seem to be in the agreement on the 
point. 


> 
> 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'.

<snip>

a_svirn:

As for `servant'. And where in the Oxford dictionary stated that 
servants and personal attendants are necessarily paid? I agree that 
in modern English the word comes to mean exactly that: `someone 
employed in menial capacity (and paid)'. But it wasn't always so. 
Take Shakespeare, for instance, he uses both words as complete 
synonyms. More importantly, in the Potterverse the word `servant' 
means `someone who is enslaved or forced to wizards' bidding". 
That's how Lucius calls Dobby – servant. And I think it is quite 
intentional from JKR part. I think the Tempest was as much in the 
back of her mind as Macbeth when she invented Potterverse. 

> <snip> Dobby certainly is a servant. He does domestic work and 
gets paid for
> it. He is not a slave. 
> 
a_svirn:

when did I ever said that he is?