slave

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See also: Slave, Slavé, slāve, slavē, and slāvē

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French sclave, from Medieval Latin sclāvus (“slave”), from Late Latin Sclāvus (“Slav”), because Slavs were often forced into slavery in the Middle Ages.[1][2][3][4][5] The Latin word is from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos), see that entry and Slav for more.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: slāv, IPA(key): /sleɪv/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪv

Noun

slave (plural slaves)

  1. A person who is the property of another person and whose labor (and sometimes also whose life) is subject to the owner's volition.
  2. A person who is legally obliged by prior contract (oral or written) to work for another, with contractually limited rights to bargain; an indentured servant.
  3. (figuratively) A drudge; one who labours like a slave.
  4. (figuratively) One who has lost the power of resistance; one who surrenders to something.
    a slave to passion, to strong drink, or to ambition
  5. (figuratively) An abject person; a wretch.
    Art thou the slave that with thy breath hast kill'd/ Mine innocent child? Shakespeare. Much Ado About Nothing.
  6. A submissive partner in a BDSM relationship who (consensually) submits to (sexually and/or personally) serving one or more masters or mistresses.
  7. A person who is forced against their will to perform, for another person or group, sexual acts or services on a regular or continuing basis.
  8. (engineering) A device that is controlled by another device.

Alternative forms

obsolete alternative forms[4]
[skl]-initial:

Template:rel-mid

[sl]-initial:
  • (16th century):
  • (17th century):

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Further reading

Verb

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  1. (intransitive) To work hard.
    I was slaving all day over a hot stove.
  2. (transitive) To enslave.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Marston to this entry?)
  3. (transitive) To place a device under the control of another.
    to slave a hard disk
    • 2005, Simon Millward, Fast Guide to Cubase SX (page 403)
      Slaving one digital audio device to another unit using timecode alone results in time-based synchronisation […]

Translations

References

  1. ^ “slave”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  2. ^ “slave”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
  3. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “slave”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 “slave, n.1 (and a.)” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989
  5. ^ F. Kluge, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. 2002, siehe «Sklave».

Anagrams

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from German Sklave, from Latin sclāvus, whence also slaver.

Pronunciation

Noun

slave c (singular definite slaven, plural indefinite slaver)

  1. slave
    Synonym: træl

Inflection

Declension of slave
common
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative slave slaven slaver slaverne
genitive slaves slavens slavers slavernes

Derived terms

Verb

slave (imperative slav, infinitive at slave, present tense slaver, past tense slavede, perfect tense har slavet)

  1. slave
    Synonym: trælle

Esperanto

Etymology

From slavo +‎ -e.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈslave]
  • Rhymes: -ave
  • Hyphenation: sla‧ve

Adverb

slave

  1. in a Slavic language; Slavically
    • 2002 November, La Ondo de Esperanto‎[1]:
      La komparo estus interesa okupo por iu ajn scipovanta slave: ĉu unu lingvon, ĉu kelkajn, sed eĉ senkomprene oni povas perokule enoreligi al si la melodion de la kroata originalo.
      The comparison would be an interesting activity for anyone knowledgable in Slavic languages: whether one language or a few, but even without understanding a person can visually bring the melody of the Croatian original into their ears.
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French

Etymology

From Middle French Sclave, from Medieval Latin Sclāvus, from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos), which see for more. Doublet of esclave.

Pronunciation

Adjective

slave (plural slaves)

  1. Slav, Slavic
    Les langues slaves. ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Derived terms

Related terms

Noun

slave m (uncountable)

  1. Slavic language
    Avant le IXe siècle, on présume que les Slaves partageaient tous une langue à peu près identique appelée le slave commun, mais aucun écrit avant 860 ne peut le prouver.
    (please add an English translation of this usage example)

References

Further reading

Anagrams

Italian

Adjective

slave

  1. (deprecated template usage) Feminine plural of adjective slavo.

Noun

slave f

  1. plural of slava

Anagrams

Latvian

Noun

slave f (5th declension)

  1. (dialectal) fame, glory; alternative form of slava

Declension

Declension of slave (5th declension)
singular (vienskaitlis) plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs) slave —
accusative (akuzatīvs) slavi —
genitive (ģenitīvs) slaves —
dative (datīvs) slavei —
instrumental (instrumentālis) slavi —
locative (lokatīvs) slavē —
vocative (vokatīvs) slave —

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

slave m (definite singular slaven, indefinite plural slaver, definite plural slavene)

  1. a slave

Derived terms

Related terms

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

slave m (definite singular slaven, indefinite plural slavar, definite plural slavane)

  1. a slave

Derived terms

Related terms

References

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