bondage

Meanings

1. The state of being enslaved or the practice of slavery.
2. The state of lacking freedom; constraint.
3. The practice of physically restraining people for sexual pleasure, such as by tying up or shackling.
4. Applied to clothing with many buckles, zips, etc., associated with punk and goth subcultures.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English bondage (“serfdom”), from British Medieval Latin bondagium (“an inferior tenure held by a bond or husbandman”), from Middle English bond (“tenant farmer, serf”), from Old English bonda (“householder, husband, head of a family”), of Old Norse origin. Sense development influenced by the unrelated terms bond and bind.