Etymology of the word "slave"

Question

Webster says that the word "slave" goes back to the word "Slav", as the early slaves in Europe were all from among Slavs. Is this etymology generally accepted, or are there some other theories?

Answer 1

This etymology seems fairly certain. Per the OED, the words Slav and slave comes from the Medieval Latin sclavus (c. 800CE), itself from the late Greek Σκλαβος (c. 580CE). According to the OED, documents of the ninth century attest to the attribution of word to the subjugated peoples of central Europe.

Answer 2

The origin appears to have developed from the wars of Otto the Great against the Slavs, ( people from central and east Europe) many of whom were reduced to the state of slavery as suggested by Earnest Klein. The above theory appears to be quite established, what remains unclear and has generated many different theories it the origin of the term Slavs, see also "Origin of the word Slavs":

• late 13c., "person who is the chattel or property of another," from Old French esclave (13c.), from Medieval Latin Sclavus "slave" (source also of Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo), originally "Slav" (see Slav); so used in this secondary sense because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples.

• This sense development arose in the consequence of the wars waged by Otto the Great and his successors against the Slavs, a great number of whom they took captive and sold into slavery. [Klein]

• More common Old English words for slave were þeow (related to þeowian "to serve") and þræl (see thrall). The Slavic words for "slave" (Russian rab, Serbo-Croatian rob, Old Church Slavonic rabu) are from Old Slavic *orbu, from the PIE root *orbh- (also source of orphan), the ground sense of which seems to be "thing that changes allegiance" (in the case of the slave, from himself to his master). The Slavic word is also the source of robot.

Answer 3

1. "Robot" comes from "rabota" (to work, a task to do), as such machines exist to replace us and thence liberate us, when it comes to hard or boring, repetitive labour.

2. As Slavs went westwards, they encountered Germanic peoples and, of course, couldn't understand them, so they named them "those who can not speak [properly] = Nemci/Nijemci".

3. Slaves existed way before Slavs came to the scene, as some insisted. It is "servitude" or "service" that is essential here! Aristotle already defines a "slave" as "talking tool". I don't think he had the pleasure of knowing any Slavs, as they come to the Balkans in the 7th Century, at the earliest, Macedonian Slavs around 9th C, I think (please, correct me)...

And this is from the top of my head, of course, I would have to go and check all this now... :)

Answer 4

More recent research on the entry of "slave" into English (first recorded late 13th century) may show something other but I find the OED's Etymology to be pretty convincing.

1.a. One who is the property of, and entirely subject to, another person, whether by capture, purchase, or birth; a servant completely divested of freedom and personal rights.

c1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 106 He was sone i-nome, Ase a sclaue forth i-lad and i-don in prisone.

Etymology: < Old French esclave (also modern French), sometimes feminine corresponding to the masculine esclaf , esclas (plural esclaz , esclauz , esclos , etc.), = Provençal esclau (masculine), esclava (feminine), Spanish esclavo , -va , Portuguese escravo , -va , Italian schiavo , -va , medieval Latin sclavus , sclava , identical with the racial name Sclavus (see Slav n. and adj.), the Slavonic population in parts of central Europe having been reduced to a servile condition by conquest; the transferred sense is clearly evidenced in documents of the 9th century.

The form with initial scl- is also represented by older German schlav(e, sclav(e, German sklave. In English the reduction of scl- to sl- is normal, and the other Germanic languages show corresponding forms, as West Frisian slaef, North Frisian slaaw, Middle Dutch slave, slaef (Dutch slaaf), Middle Low German and Low German slave (hence Danish and Norwegian slave), older German slaf(e, Swedish slaf).

The history of the words representing slave and Slav in late Greek, medieval Latin, and German, is very fully traced in Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch s.v. Sklave.