esclave French · revision 38695

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1175, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Chronique des ducs de Normandie|origins=sla-pro *slověninъ}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ɛs.klav/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''esclave''' ''m or f'' by sense (plural esclaves)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|esclave]], with the masculine [[m|fro|esclaf]] (13th century).^(Littré 1873) Anglo-Norman also had [[m|xno|eclave]].^(AND)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la-med|sclavus|t=slave]] (10th century), a variant of [[m|la-med|slavus]], which properly meant “Slav” (7th century).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) The Latin form is probably a back-formation from a form [[m|la-med|*sclavone|t=Slav]], taken for an accusative, which came from [[sla-pro|*slověninъ|t=Slav]];^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(FEW|20, 45b) Medieval Greek followed the same path.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(FEW|20, 45b)

+

+ The sense “slave” arose in the early Middle Ages, when Germanic peoples and the Byzantines reduced great numbers of Slavs in the Balkans to slavery.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Bloch and Wartburg add that Venetian raids on Slavonia during the Crusades are also credited with spreading the sense,^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) while Littré tied it to the wars of Otto the Great and his successors against the Slavs.^(Littré 1873) Latin had used [[m|la|servus]] in this sense, the source of [[serf]].^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ The word spread across Europe: [[it|schiavo]], [[es|esclavo]], [[de|Sklave]] and [[en|slave]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) As a learned word, it did not regularly develop into a popular form [[m|fr|éclave]], though that form is found in early modern French.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is first recorded about 1175 in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's ''Chronique des ducs de Normandie'', as a noun for a person without freedom who belongs to a master.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The word took on very different connotations depending on the society it described, from classical antiquity to the Atlantic slave trade.^(DHLF 1992) From the early 17th century it was applied to someone subject to tyrannical power (1608, Mathurin Régnier), and to a person wholly dominated by a passion, a habit or another person,^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi) including the devoted lover of classical literature (1661, Corneille).^(GLLF 1989) It is also used as an adjective: ''être esclave de son travail''.^(GLLF 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ Its derivatives date from later periods: [[esclavage]] from 1577, [[esclavagiste]] from 1864.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) English [[m|en|slave]], first recorded about 1300 as ''sclave'' or ''esclave'', came from Old French and directly from Medieval Latin.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1175 – Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses it for an unfree person.^(TLFi)

+ * 13th century – The masculine ''esclaf'' appears in the histories of the Crusades.^(Littré 1873)

+ * 1577 – The derivative ''esclavage''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1608 – Mathurin Régnier uses it of a person under tyrannical power.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1661 – Corneille uses it of a devoted lover.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1864 – ''Esclavagiste'' and ''antiesclavagiste''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|slave]], a person who is not free and is the property of a master.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+ # A person subject to a [[m|en|tyrannical]] power or foreign rule.^(GLLF 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+ # A person wholly [[m|en|dominated]] by someone or something: ''esclave du tabac''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Subject to a master or to something that controls one: ''être esclave de ses habitudes''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[esclavage]]

+ * [[esclavagiste]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[serf]]

+ * [[la-med|sclavus]]

+ * [[en|slave]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Capitalized, ''Esclave'' is the French name of the Slavey, an Athabaskan people of Canada, a translation of a Cree word.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}