also: どひ
slaves (ritsuryō system); bondservants
Only with reading ぬひ
Historical term for the lowest social class under the ritsuryō legal system; refers to unfree laborers.
male and female servants; manservants and maids
General term for household servants of both genders; can be read as ぬひ or どひ, though ぬひ is more common.
Under the ritsuryō system, slaves were placed at the lowest stratum of the lowly classes.
In the old large mansions, many male and female servants worked.
government-owned slave
government-owned slave
privately owned slave
Standard kanji form; reading ぬひ is used for the historical ritsuryō sense, while どひ is a variant reading for the general servant sense.
Variant reading for the general servant sense; less common than ぬひ.
From Chinese 奴婢 (núbì), combining 奴 (slave, servant) and 婢 (maidservant). The reading ぬひ is the go-on reading, while どひ is a variant using the kan'on reading for the first character.