drudgery

noun

Etymology: From drudge (“person who works in a low servile job”) + -ery (suffix meaning ‘the art, craft, or practice of’ forming nouns).

1. Exhausting, menial, and tedious work.

   “What laier much better then there, / or cheaper (thereon to doo well?) / What drudgerie more any where / lesse good thereof where can ye tell? / What gotten by Sommer is seene: / in Winter is eaten vp cleene.”

   “I may not dure this female drudgerie, / To ſea Æneas, finde out Italy.”