The ''sebri'' ( sr-Cyrl, себри) was the lower-half social class,

commoner A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither ...

s, of the medieval Serbian state. The status of the groups comprising the class was regulated in medieval

code of law A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the co ...

s, such as ''

Dušan's Code Dušan's Code (, known historically as – Law of the pious Emperor Stefan) is a compilation of several legal systems that was enacted by Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia in 1349. It drew upon Roman law, Byzantine law, as well as elements of cus ...

'' (1349). It included several groups, mainly divided into: *The ''meropsi'' (меропси) or ''merophe'' (меропхе), dependent farmers. Other terms included ''zemljanin'' ("earthen an, from ''zemlja'', "land"), ''Srbljin'' (from the

Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history, and language. They primarily live in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

), or ''zemljani ljudi'' ("earthen folk"). They served either the ruler, the church, or nobility. Medieval sources allows for understanding the legal position of the church's meropsi, while that of the ruler's and nobility's ''meropsi'' is deemed insufficient. The fact that there were three groups implies that their status was not identical, however, it has been established that their status did essentially not differ. *The ''vlasi'' (власи) or ''pastiri'' (пастири), dependent shepherds. The multitude and likely prevalence of ''

Vlachs Vlach ( ), also Wallachian and many other variants, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe—south of the Danube (the Balkan peninsula ...

'' (Romanized remnants; see

Vlachs in medieval Serbia In medieval Serbia a social group known as "Vlachs" () existed. While the term Vlachs had more meaning, primarily denote the inhabitants of Aromanian origin and also dependent shepherds in the medieval Serbian state. Background Romance elements in ...

) among the shepherds made the term "Vlachs" a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

for shepherds, similarly as the term ''Srbljin'' was sporadically used for farmers. The status of the ''vlasi'' was basically equal to the ''meropsi''. *The ''

otroci Otroci ( sr-Cyrl, отроци) is a Serbian word literally meaning 'children' (). The meaning of the word implies a higher degree of dependence of this population category. They represented a category of dependent people who, by their legal and s ...

'' (отроци), a type of medieval

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. This group was closest to having complete deprivation of rights, similar to slaves (''robovi''), although this has for long and persistently been disputed in scholarship. The lord could free his ''otroci'' from that status, which points to similarity with slave status. *The dependent (or rural) craftsmen and ''sokalnici'' (сокалници). The craftsmen and ''sokalnici'' had a special status, which is unclarified from available sources. *Partially also the rural clergy.

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