slave

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See also: Slave, Slavé, slavě, slavē, slāve, slāvē, sláve, and slávě

English

Etymology

From Middle English sclave, from Old French sclave, from Medieval Latin sclāvus (“slave”), from Late Latin Sclāvus (“Slav”), because Slavs were often forced into slavery in the Middle Ages. The Latin word is from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos); see that entry and Slav for more. Displaced native Old English þēow. Thrall and bondsman/bondswoman, however, remain common synonyms.

An alternative hypothesis derives sclāvus from Ancient Greek σκῡλεύω (skūleúō), σκῡλάω (skūláō, “to strip or despoil a slain enemy”).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: slāv, IPA(key): /sleɪv/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪv

Noun

slave (plural slaves)

  1. A person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's volition and control.
    • 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 9:
      Fear of their cargo bred a savage cruelty into the crew. One captain, to strike terror into the rest, killed a slave and dividing heart, liver and entrails into 300 pieces made each of the slaves eat one, threatening those who refused with the same torture. Such incidents were not rare.
  2. (figuratively) A drudge; one who labors or is obliged (e.g. by prior contract) to labor like a slave with limited rights, e.g. an indentured servant.
  3. (figuratively) An abject person.
    Synonym: wretch
  4. (figuratively) One who has no power of resistance to something, one who surrenders to or is under the domination of something.
    a slave to passion, to strong drink, or to ambition
    • 1985, “Slave to the Rhythm”, in Slave to the Rhythm, performed by Grace Jones:
      Slave to the rhythm! / Keep it up, keep it up! / Never stop! Never stop!
  5. (BDSM) A submissive partner in a BDSM relationship who consensually submits to, sexually or personally, serving one or more masters or mistresses.
    Hypernym: sub
  • A sex slave, a person who is forced against their will to perform, for another person or group, sexual acts on a regular or continuing basis.
  • (engineering, computing, photography) A device (such as a secondary flash or hard drive) that is subject to the control of another (a master).
    Synonyms: secondary, worker
    Antonyms: master, primary
    • 2011, Roderick W. Smith, LPIC-2 Linux Professional Institute Certification Study Guide, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:
      If you administer your own reverse DNS zones, remember to include them in your slave configuration.

    • Usage notes

    • In the technical sense increasingly replaced with less-charged terms such as secondary, worker etc.

    Alternative forms

    obsolete alternative forms
    -initial:
    -initial:
    • (16th century):
    • (17th century):

    Hyponyms

    Coordinate terms

    Derived terms

    Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

    Further reading

    Verb

    slave (third-person singular simple present slaves, present participle slaving, simple past and past participle slaved)

    1. To work as a slaver, to enslave people.
      • 1606, John Marston, The Wonder of Women:
        MASSINISSA: Wilt thou be slaved?
        SOPHONISBA: No, free
      • 1908, James Wells, Stewart of Lovedale: The Life of James Stewart, D.D., M.D., Hon. F.R.G.S., page 88:
        The truth is from the Zambesi to Lake Nyasa on the north and east banks of the river, there is nothing but slaving — Africans selling each other . . .
      • 2011, David Eltis, Keith Bradley, Paul Cartledge, The Cambridge World History of Slavery: Volume 3, AD 1420-AD 1804, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 128:
        Despite these examples, the majority of enslaved Africans were not able to rely on rulers for help against slaving. Africans living in chiefdoms and villages ruled by allied African authorities were, however, able to use the legal system (Tribunal of Mukanos) in place in the regions under formal Portuguese control […]
      • 2016, Thomas Arcaro, Rosemary Haskell, Chinedu Eke, Robert Anderson, Stephen Braye, Ann Cahill, Brian Digre, Anne Bolin, Mathew Gendle, Duane McClearn, Jeffrey Pugh, Laura Roselle, Jean Schwind, Kerstin Sorensen, Anthony Weston, Understanding the Global Experience: Becoming a Responsible World Citizen, Routledge, →ISBN:
        With ready access to firearms through trade, the slaving Africans held a distinct upper-hand over the groups they preyed upon, which were often politically and socially weakened or destroyed by the trade.
      • 2016, Alistair Paterson, A Millennium of Cultural Contact, Routledge, →ISBN, page 117:
        Significant impacts resulted from slaving; there is evidence of how communities dealt with the threat and benefits of slaving. Africans provided most of the slaves to European slavers. Most slaves were created either to settle debts or raise funds, through warfare, or as punishment for a real or perceived crime.
    2. (intransitive) To work hard.
      I was slaving all day over a hot stove.
    3. (transitive) To place a device under the control of another.
      to slave a hard disk
      • 2005, Simon Millward, Fast Guide to Cubase SX, page 403:
        Slaving one digital audio device to another unit using timecode alone results in time-based synchronisation […]

    Derived terms

    Translations

    References

    1. ^ “slave”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
    2. ^ “slave”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
    3. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “slave”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
    4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 “slave, n.1 (and a.)” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989
    5. ^ Friedrich Kluge (1899) “Sklave”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 6th edition, Strasbourg: Karl J. Trübner, page 366
    6. ^ Korth, Georg (1970) “Zur Etymologie des Wortes 'Slavus' (Sklave)”, in Glotta: Zeitschrift fur Griechische und Lateinische Sprache‎ (in German), volume 48, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, pages 145–153
    7. ^ Friedrich Kluge (1989) “Sklave”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 676
    8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (1995) “Sklave”, in Deutsches Etymologisches Rechtswörterbuch‎ (in German), Tübingen: Mohr, →ISBN, page 371
    9. ^ Scholten, Daniel (2020) “Sklave und Slawe”, in Deutsch für Dichter und Denker: Unsere Muttersprache in neuem Licht‎, Bright Star Books, →ISBN

    Anagrams

    Danish

    Etymology

    Borrowed from German Sklave, from Latin sclāvus, whence also slaver.

    Pronunciation

    Noun

    slave c (singular definite slaven, plural indefinite slaver)

    1. slave
      Synonym: træl

    Inflection

    Declension of slave
    common
    gender     		Singular Plural
    indefinite definite indefinite definite
    nominative slave slaven slaver slaverne
    genitive slaves slavens slavers slavernes

    Derived terms

    Verb

    slave (imperative slav, infinitive at slave, present tense slaver, past tense slavede, perfect tense har slavet)

    1. slave
      Synonym: trælle

    Esperanto

    Etymology

    From slavo +‎ -e.

    Pronunciation

    Adverb

    slave

    1. In a Slavic language; Slavically
      • 2002 November, La Ondo de Esperanto‎:
        La komparo estus interesa okupo por iu ajn scipovanta slave: ĉu unu lingvon, ĉu kelkajn, sed eĉ senkomprene oni povas perokule enoreligi al si la melodion de la kroata originalo.
        The comparison would be an interesting activity for anyone knowledgeable in Slavic languages: whether one language or a few, but even without understanding a person can visually bring the melody of the Croatian original into their ears.
      • 2002 March 12, Michael Wolf, “Re: Geografia demando: Vendia”, in soc.culture.esperanto (Usenet):
        La plej norda loko estis la duoninsulo Rügen (slave: Rujana) kaj la plej suda en suda (Supra) Luzacio.
        The northernmost place was the Rügen peninsula (Slavically: Rujana) and the southernmost in southern (Upper) Lusatia.
      • 2004 July 19, Rafi, “Re: Lingva demando al fakuloj - evoluo de Esperanto”, in soc.culture.esperanto (Usenet):
        En la angla estas vortoj diversdevenaj (france, ghermane, slave, arabe, ...). Same en multaj lingvoj.
        In English there are words of diverse origin (from French, Germanic, Slavic, Arabic, ...). It's the same in many languages.

    French

    Etymology

    Inherited from Middle French Sclave, from Medieval Latin Sclāvus, from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos), which see for more. Doublet of esclave.

    Pronunciation

    Adjective

    slave (plural slaves)

    1. Slav, Slavic
      Les langues slaves. ― The slavic languages.

    Derived terms

    Related terms

    Noun

    slave m (uncountable)

    1. a Slavic language
      Avant le IXe siècle, on présume que les Slaves partageaient tous une langue à peu près identique appelée le slave commun, mais aucun écrit avant 860 ne peut le prouver.
      Before the 9th century, it is believed that the Slavs all shared a nearly identical language, termed Common Slavic, but no writing before 860 can attest to this.

    References

    Further reading

    Anagrams

    Italian

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /ˈzla.ve/
    • Rhymes: -ave
    • Hyphenation: slà‧ve

    Adjective

    slave

    1. feminine plural of slavo

    Noun

    slave f

    1. plural of slava

    Anagrams

    Latvian

    Noun

    slave f (5th declension)

    1. (dialectal) fame, glory; alternative form of slava

    Declension

    Declension of slave (5th declension)
    singular (vienskaitlis) plural (daudzskaitlis)
    nominative (nominatīvs) slave —
    accusative (akuzatīvs) slavi —
    genitive (ģenitīvs) slaves —
    dative (datīvs) slavei —
    instrumental (instrumentālis) slavi —
    locative (lokatīvs) slavē —
    vocative (vokatīvs) slave —

    Middle English

    Noun

    slave

    1. Alternative form of sclave

    Norwegian Bokmål

    Noun

    slave m (definite singular slaven, indefinite plural slaver, definite plural slavene)

    1. slave

    Derived terms

    Related terms

    References

    Norwegian Nynorsk

    Noun

    slave m (definite singular slaven, indefinite plural slavar, definite plural slavane)

    1. slave

    Derived terms

    Related terms

    References

    Serbo-Croatian

    Verb

    slave (Cyrillic spelling славе)

    1. third-person plural present of slaviti
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