c.1300, "condition of a serf or slave," from Anglo-Latin bondagium, from Middle English bond "a serf, tenant farmer," from Old English bonda "householder," from Old Norse boandi "free-born farmer," noun use of present participle of boa "dwell, prepare, inhabit," from PIE *bhow-, from root *bheue- "to be, exist, dwell" (see be). Meaning in English changed by influence of bond. The sexual sado-masochism sense is recorded by 1966.