Origin of the word Slav

[Jim Rader]

I don't think you've drawn the right conclusions from the Shorter
OED etymologies, but I can see why.  The etymology of <Slav>
given therein does not go beyond Medieval Latin
<Sclavus>/Medieval Greek <Sklabos>.  Is there any question that
these words come ultimately from one or more of the various Slavic
autonyms that begin with <slov->?  As for the semantic passage of
Medieval Latin <Sclavus> from ethnonym to generic noun meaning
"chattel slave"--this was shown pretty conclusively, I think, by
Charles Verlinden in "L'Origine de <sclavus> = esclave" in
_Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi_, t. 17 (1943), pp. 97-128.  The
earlier Latin words <servus/serva> and <mancipium> were put to
other uses.  Has anyone seriously challenged Verlinden's data and
argument?  The Shorter OED's attempt at an explanation ("the
Slavonic peoples having been reduced to a servile state by
conquest during the 9th cent.") is a red herring, if not a downright
falsehood.  Prisoners of war and captives taken in raids were
routinely sold into slavery in the 10th-11th centuries, with the
direction of traffic usually being the Islamic world, which had the
precious metals and other goods to pay for slaves. Slavic peoples
just happened to be the most prominent victims at the time.

Jim Rader


> I am posting this for a historian friend. I remember studying this
> question in various introductory courses a long time ago, but is there a
> short answer? Thanks, Katya King
>
> I write in the hopes that a member of this list group will be able to
> clarify for me the relationship between the words for "Slav" in English
> and in the Slavic languages themselves
>
> >From the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, I learn that the English
> word "Slav" derives from the medieval Latin sclavus, meaning
> "captive." Under the entry "slave," the dictionary gives the same medieval
> Latin term, and explains that it is "identical with the ethnic name
> Sclavus [Slav], the Slav peoples having been reduced to a servile state by
> conquest during the ninth century."
>
> Slavic-language words for "Slav" [Slovan, etc.], meanwhile, seem to have
> an etymology rooted in the word for "word" [slovo]. Slavs, to themselves,
> were people who could speak intelligibly -- as opposed to Germans [Nemci
> -- with "mute" the root here].
>
> Now for my questions. Is the above information correct? Would I be right
> in concluding that the resemblance between the English-language word for
> "Slav" and the Slavic-language words for "Slav" is purely coincidental,
> and not the result of any borrowing? -- Katerina P. King, Ph.D. Mount
> Holyoke College
>
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