Slavery? origins of the word "Slav" and its relation to "slave"

[Dimitri Bourilkov]

Hello,

     The best is to use the Oxford English Dictionary:


Slav


[In early use ad. med.L. Sclavus (recorded from c 800), corresponding to late
Gr.  (c580): cf. older G. Sklave, Sclav(e, Schlav(e, MHG. Schlaff. The later
forms in Sl-correspond to mod.G. and F. Slave, med.L. Slavus (951), and are
closer to the OSlav. and Russian forms: see SLOVENE.]

Slovene

[a. G. Slovene (Slowene), pl. Slovenen, ad. Styrian, etc. Slovenec,
pl. Slovenci; the name is a survival of the old native designation of the
Slavs, which appears in OSlav. as Slovne, and is supposed to be derived from
the stem of slovo word, sloviti to speak.]



slave

[ad. OF. esclave (also mod.F.), sometimes fem. corresponding to the masc.
esclaf, esclas (pl. esclaz, esclauz, esclos, etc.), = Prov. esclau masc.,
esclava fem., Sp. esclavo, -va, Pg. escravo, -va, It. schiavo, -va,
med.L. sclavus, sclava, identical with the racial name Sclavus (see SLAV),
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 G. schlav(e,
sclav(e, G. sklave. In English the reduction of scl- to sl- is normal, and
the other Teut. languages show corresponding forms, as WFris. slaef,
NFris. slaaw, MDu. slave, slaef (Du. slaaf), MLG. and LG. slave (hence
Da. and Norw. slave), older G. slaf(e, Sw. slaf).
  The history of the words representing slave and Slav in late Gr.,
med.L., and G., is very fully traced in Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch
s.v. Sklave.]

      Best regards,
      Michaela & Dimitri Bourilkov

--
      _/_/_/_/     _/_/_/_/       Dimitri BOURILKOV
     _/      _/   _/      _/     Institute for Particle Physics, ETH Zurich
    _/      _/   _/      _/
   _/      _/   _/_/_/_/       Mail: CERN, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
  _/      _/   _/      _/     E-mail: Dimitri.Bourilkov at cern.ch
 _/      _/   _/      _/     Web: http://l3www.cern.ch/~bourilko/
_/_/_/_/     _/_/_/_/       Phone: +41-22-7679389  Fax: +41-22-7827558

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