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

commoners 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 ...

, 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 cod ...

s, such as ''

Dušan's Code Dušan's Code ( sr-cyr, Душанов законик, ''Dušanov zakonik'', known historically as ''Закон благовјернаго цара Стефана'' – Law of the pious Emperor Stefan) is a compilation of several legal systems th ...

'' (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 the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

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" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Easter ...

'' (Romanized remnants; see

Vlachs in medieval Serbia In medieval Serbia a social group known as "Vlachs" ( sr, / ) 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 el ...

) among the shepherds made the term "Vlachs" a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly 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 all ...

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'' (отроци), a type of medieval

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. 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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