esclave

Forms

esclave m or f^[1]

• esclaf, esclaif, esclaive, esclas, esclaz^[2][3]
• eclave^[4]

The FEW records esclas as a nominative singular and esclaf as a nominative plural in 1205.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”),^[5][6][7][8] recorded in the 10th century and a variant of slavus (“Slav”), which is found in the 7th.^[5][7] The TLFi and the DHLF take the Latin noun for a back-formation from a form meaning "Slav" that was mistaken for an accusative, going back to Proto-Slavic *slověninŭ (“Slav”),^[5][7] and the FEW files the word under that Slavic etymon.^[3] The FEW explains the /k/ between /s/ and /l/ as Greek: the Byzantines called the Slavs of the Balkan hinterland by a name first found in Procopius, in which the unusual group /sl/ developed a consonant between its two sounds.^[3] Gamillscheg notes that the change of /sl/ to /skl/ is found both in Latin and in Byzantine Greek in words from Balkan Romance.^[8]

The sense "slave" grew out of the ethnic name in the early Middle Ages, when Germans and Byzantines enslaved many Slavs in the Balkans.^[6][7][5] Gamillscheg traces the steps: among the Franks of the 9th century the word meant a half-free man, in southern Italy in the 11th century a tenant, then a slave, and it probably became general in the West in the wake of the Crusades.^[8] Bloch and Wartburg also mention the Venetian raids in Slavonia during the Crusades.^[6] The word spread across Europe: Italian schiavo, Spanish esclavo, German Sklave and English slave.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronique des ducs de Normandie, which the TLFi dates to about 1175 and the DEAF bibliography to about 1174, where it means a person in bondage.^[5][9][2] Bloch and Wartburg and the FEW date the word to about 1170.^[6][3] The DEAF also lists esclaive from Gaston Paris's volume of the Vie de saint Alexis, which prints the 11th-century poem together with its reworkings of the 12th to the 14th centuries.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

The word names a person who is not free by birth, or whom force has put under a master's absolute power.^[2][3] In the histories of the Crusades it is used for captives: Ambroise has the defeated surrender chaitifs esclaves, and Joinville says that envoys become prison et esclave when a king or sultan dies.^[1][2] It could also be used figuratively, as in the Roman de la Rose of the pieces taken in chess.^[1]

The Latin word for a slave had been Latin servus, the source of serf.^[7] The modern word is French esclave.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1174 – in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronique des ducs de Normandie.^[5][9]
• 1194–1199 – the AND's first citation.^[4]
• 1205 – esclas and esclaf.^[3]
• c. 1280 – in the romance of Escanor.^[1]
• 1309 – esclaves in Joinville.^[11][1]

Meanings

Noun

1. a slave, a man or woman not free by birth or held in a master's power.^[2][4][1]
2. a captive, prisoner of war.^[1]
3. (figurative) one who is subjugated.^[4][1]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word esclave, with the spelling eclave, and first cites it from 1194–1199 in the sense of a slave or subjugated person.^[4] Middle English had sclave and esclave about 1300, from the Old French word and directly from Medieval Latin, which became the English noun slave.^[12]

Descendants

• Middle French esclave (→ French esclave)^[13][5]
• Middle English sclave (borrowed; → English slave)^[12]

Related words

• esclavine

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch heads the word esclave with esclaf,^[1] the AND and the DEAF esclave.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:920
2. ^ a b c d e f g Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. esclave
3. ^ a b c d e f g Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 20:45
4. ^ a b c d e f Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. esclave
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 274
7. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. esclave
8. ^ a b c Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 415
9. ^ a b Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. BenDucF
10. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. AlexisP
11. ^ Martineau, France, et al., Corpus MCVF (Modéliser le changement: les voies du français), version 2.0, University of Ottawa (texts by file name), p. 1309-joinville-mcvf-p
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. esclave