| 释义 |
peonage|ˈpiːənɪdʒ|
[f. prec. + -age.]
The work or service of a peon; the system of having or using peons or enslaved debtors.
1. In S. America, attendance upon a horse or mule; in Mexico spec. the condition of a peon serf, servitude for debt; the system of holding peons. Also, in parts of southern U.S., an arrangement whereby convicts are leased to contractors. Also transf. and attrib.
1850G. A. McCall Lett. fr. Frontiers (1868) 500 The greatest lever that could be used in overturning the present system of peonage. 1850Ex. Doc. 31st U.S. Congress 1 Sess. Senate No. 64. 49 From this cause, and the miserable system of ‘peonage’ that prevails, the products of agriculture are barely sufficient to support the inhabitants [north of El Paso]. 1860O. W. Holmes Elsie V. xii. (1887) 134 The master who held her in peonage. 1870J. Orton Andes & Amazons iv. (1876) 79 Horse hire, peonage, and most mechanical work must be paid for in advance. a1889J. J. Webb Adventures Santa Fé Trade (1931) 101 The system of peonage, or voluntary servitude, was a fixed institution. 1903Times 25 Nov. 5/6 The peonage system in the South practically amounts to an attempt to restore slavery under another name. 1903Nation (N.Y.) 3 Dec. 436/3 More peonage revelations in various portions of the South must be opening the eyes of those editors who criticised us last spring for believing that the Alabama cases were other than sporadic and unparalleled happenings. 1934A. Woollcott While Rome Burns 291 The Guild must often wonder why..it should ask..a company to enter into so benumbing a peonage. 1969A. G. Frank Latin Amer. xix. 302 After the French intervention and under the thirty-year reign of Porfirio Díaz, peonage returned in full force and concentration of landownership became worse than ever. 1972P. Daniel Shadow of Slavery ii. 33 The root of the peonage problem was anchored in the long-practiced abuse of black laborers. 1972‘E. Lathen’ Murder without Icing (1973) xi. 107 The player..contended that, if he could be forced to..work for another team at the whim of his employer, he had been reduced to an unconstitutional state of peonage. 1972National Observer (U.S.) 27 May 7/4 Federal Judge J. Robert Martin, Jr., had told the jury that Federal law required that proof of ‘peonage’ must be based on evidence of indebtedness. 1973L. G. Forer in A. E. Wilkerson Rights of Children 31 Legality of the commitment would then be the issue—not the procedures by which he was committed or the quantum of care that he received or the existence of institutional peonage.
2. In India: The service or employment of peons as messengers, etc.: see prec. 1.
1900Indian Engineering 24 Feb. 115 The hourly post..a far more satisfactory agency for the spread of their price⁓lists than the old cumbersome and unreliable peonage. |
