sclav

Forms

sclav m (plural sclavi, feminine equivalent sclavă)^[1] MDA2 records an old, rare variant șclav;^[2][3] DLR quotes it from 1838: „cereri multe în treaba şclavilor din America” “many petitions about the slaves in America”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”), a learned borrowing of the modern period.^[3][4][1] DEX, MDA2 and MDN simply say Latin, and DEX and DN compare French esclave.^[5][2][6] Scriban took it from the French word.^[7] Gabinschi treats it as an international word of Late Latin origin that came into Romanian through both French and German Sklave.^[8]

The Medieval Latin word goes back to Sclavus (“Slav”), from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos), the name of the Slavs, because many Slavs were made slaves in the Middle Ages.^[1] Scriban links this to the Slavs captured and sold by the German king Otto the Great in the 10th century.^[7] Romanian therefore has the ethnic name twice more as doublets of the word: slav and the old șcheau.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DLR's earliest dated quotation is from a periodical of 1831, which reports that France freed its slaves on Haiti during the Revolution.^[3] In 1838 a newspaper writes of petitions in the House of Lords concerning the slaves in America, with the spelling șclav.^[3] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains the word by the native rob.^[9] MDA2 gives Asachi's encyclopaedic lexicon of 1842 as its first record.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is legal and historical: a person owned by a master, with no rights, and DLR's quotations range from the slaves of antiquity to those of the Americas.^[3][5] Figuratively it is used for someone who blindly does another's will or is ruled by a passion, a dogma or a vice.^[5] Eminescu sets the slave against the emperor.^[3][5] It competes with the older rob, which DLR and Negulici give as its synonym.^[3][9] Prison slang uses it for an inmate who does menial services for others.^[10]

Timeline

• 1831 – a periodical reports the freeing of the slaves of Haiti, the earliest dated record in DLR.^[3]
• 1838 – șclavilor “of the slaves” in a newspaper report about America.^[3]
• 1842 – Asachi's lexicon, MDA2's first record.^[2]
• 1848 – Negulici's dictionary of neologisms glosses it rob.^[9]
• 1870 – Costinescu defines it as one who has lost or pledged his freedom, with a figurative use.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A slave: a person without rights, owned by a master and working for him; a rob.^[5][2]
2. (figurative) Someone who does another person's will blindly and servilely.^[5][4]
3. (figurative) Someone wholly ruled by a passion, a dogma or a vice: sclavul jocurilor de noroc “a slave to gambling”.^[5][6]
4. (slang) In prison, an inmate who does humiliating services for others.^[10]

Related words

• slav
• șcheau
• rob
• Medieval Latin sclavus

Usage notes

The feminine is sclavă.^[5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 809
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sclav
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. sclav
5. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 990
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. sclav
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1170
8. ^ a b Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 168
9. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. sclav
10. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. sclav
11. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 484