slave

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sleɪv/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English sclave, borrowed from Old French esclave, and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave, captive”),^[2][3][4] which is identical with the ethnic name Sclavus (“a Slav”) (see Slav),^[5][2][3] itself from a Late Greek name for the Slavs.^[4] It was so used because many Slavs were taken captive and sold by their conquerors;^[2][3] Hoad and NODE connect it with their subjection by conquest in the 9th century.^[5][6] The spelling slave, without c, is from about 1385, a reduction normal in English and most Germanic languages.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who is the property of another and wholly subject to them: about 1290 in the OED,^[7] about 1300 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

As a term of contempt the word is from 1537, now archaic,^[7] and Shakespeare's age used it more lightly for a rascal or fellow.^[7] One who submits servilely to another is from 1521,^[7] one dominated by a habit or influence (a slave to fashion) from 1559,^[7] and one who toils like a slave from 1774.^[7] An ant captured by and made to serve ants of another species is from 1817.^[7] The verb meant to enslave (1559) before to work like a slave (1719).^[2][3] Slavery meant hard work or drudgery in 1551 and the condition of a slave from 1577;^[2] the slave trade is from 1734 and the slave driver from 1807.^[2] Wage slaves is in the English translation of the Communist Manifesto.^[8] In engineering a slave is a device controlled by another device.^[9][10]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – a person owned by another.^[7]
• c. 1385 – the spelling slave.^[2]
• 1521 – one who submits servilely.^[7]
• 1551 – slavery, drudgery.^[2]
• 1559 – the verb, to enslave.^[2]
• 1719 – to work like a slave.^[2][3]
• 1734 – slave trade.^[2]
• 1817 – a slave ant.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who is legally owned by another and has no freedom; one held in servitude.
2. A person completely dominated by another person or by a habit or influence: a slave to fashion.
3. A person who works extremely hard; a drudge.
4. A machine or component controlled by another.

Verb

1. To work very hard; to toil.
2. (rare) To trade in or carry slaves.

Word family

• slaveless
• slavelike

Related words

• Slav
• Slavic
• enslave
• slavery

Usage notes

Slave is also the name, from 1789, of a group of Athabaskan-speaking peoples of north-western Canada, said to translate a Cree word for a captive.^[3][7]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press