# slave
## English
### Etymology

Inherited from Middle English sclave, from Old French sclave, from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”), from Late Latin Sclavus (“Slav”), traditionally assumed to be because Slavs were often forced into slavery in the Middle Ages. The Latin word is from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos); see that entry and Slav for more. Displaced native Old English þēow. Thrall and bondsman/bondswoman, however, remain common synonyms. Doublet of ciao and Slav.
An alternative hypothesis derives sclavus from Ancient Greek σκῡλεύω (skūleúō), σκῡλάω (skūláō, “to strip or despoil a slain enemy”).

### Pronunciation

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

### Noun

slave (plural slaves)
* A person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's volition and control.
** 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 9:Fear of their cargo bred a savage cruelty into the crew. One captain, to strike terror into the rest, killed a slave and dividing heart, liver and entrails into 300 pieces made each of the slaves eat one, threatening those who refused with the same torture. Such incidents were not rare.
* (figuratively) A drudge; one who labors or is obliged (e.g. by prior contract) to labor like a slave with limited rights, e.g. an indentured servant.
* (figuratively) An abject person.
    Synonym: wretch
** 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC,:Art thou the ſlaue that with thy breath haſt kill'd / Mine innocent child?
* (figuratively) One who has no power of resistance to something, one who surrenders to or is under the domination of something.
    a slave to passion, to strong drink, or to ambition
** 1985, “Slave to the Rhythm”, in Slave to the Rhythm, performed by Grace Jones:Slave to the rhythm! / Keep it up, keep it up! / Never stop! Never stop!
* (BDSM) A submissive partner in a BDSM relationship who consensually submits to, sexually or personally, serving one or more masters or mistresses.
    Hypernym: sub
** [2016, Ariane Cruz, The Color of Kink: Black Women, BDSM, and Pornography, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 39:In the clip the black female “slave” dons a chain around her neck for which her white mistress possesses the key. The black woman sub is further disciplined by the power of speech—the force of silence.]
* A sex slave, a person who is forced against their will to perform, for another person or group, sexual acts on a regular or continuing basis.
* (engineering, computing, photography) A device (such as a secondary flash or hard drive) that is subject to the control of another (a master).
    Synonyms: secondary, worker
    Antonyms: master, primary
** 2011, Roderick W. Smith, LPIC-2 Linux Professional Institute Certification Study Guide, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:If you administer your own reverse DNS zones, remember to include them in your slave configuration.

#### Usage notes

* In the technical sense increasingly replaced with less-charged terms such as secondary, worker etc.

#### Alternative forms

    [skl]-initial:
* (14th century):
** sclaue
* (15th century):
** sclaue
** sclave
* (16th century):
** sclaue
** sklaw
** sklaue
** sklave
    [sl]-initial:
* (16th century):
** slaif
** slaue
** slave (modern spelling developed)
* (17th century):
** slaue
** slave (whenceforth the modern spelling predominated)

#### Hyponyms

* bossale, bozal

#### Coordinate terms

* chattel
* indentured servant

#### Derived terms

* antislave
* antislaver
* antislavery
* app slave
* beslave
* bondslave
* cock slave
* debt slave
* energy slave
* enslave
* enslavement
* enslaven
* enslaver
* ex-slave
* field slave
* financial slave
* footslave
* fuckslave
* galley-slave
* galley slave
* HM slave
* houseslave
* house slave
* inslave
* Lesser Slave River
* love slave
* master-slave manipulator
* multislave
* nonslave
* no slave to fashion
* postslavery
* preslavery
* proslaver
* pseudoslave
* semislave
* sex slave
* sexual slavery
* slave ant
* slave auction
* slaveborn
* slave-boy
* slaveboy
* slave bracelet
* slave breaker
* slave-breeding
* slave camp
* slavecatcher
* slavecatching
* slave clock
* slave code
* slave cylinder
* slavedealer
* slavedealing
* slavedom
* slave-driver
* slave driver
* Slave Dynasty
* slave earring
* slavefic
* slave fork
* slave-girl
* slavegirl
* slaveholder
* slaveholding
* slavehood
* slave labor
* slave labour
* slaveless
* slavelet
* slavelike
* slaveling
* slavemaker
* slavemaking
* slave-making ant
* slave market
* slavemaster
* slavemistress
* slavemonger
* slave name
* slavenapper
* slavenapping
* slavened
* slave of the lamp
* slave owner
* slaveowner
* slaver
* slavery
* slave ship
* slavess
* slave state
* slave to fashion
* slave to the wage
* slave trade
* slave trader
* slave-trader
* slave wage
* slavey
* slavish
* slavocracy
* slavocrat
* take slave
* tricky slave
* wage slave
* what did your last slave die of
* white slave
* white slaver
* white slavery

#### Translations

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

### Verb

slave (third-person singular simple present slaves, present participle slaving, simple past and past participle slaved)
* To work as a slaver, to enslave people.
** 1606, John Marston, The Wonder of Women:MASSINISSA: Wilt thou be slaved? SOPHONISBA: No, free
** 1908, James Wells, Stewart of Lovedale: The Life of James Stewart, D.D., M.D., Hon. F.R.G.S., page 88:The truth is from the Zambesi to Lake Nyasa on the north and east banks of the river, there is nothing but slaving — Africans selling each other . . .
** 2011, David Eltis, Keith Bradley, Paul Cartledge, The Cambridge World History of Slavery: Volume 3, AD 1420-AD 1804, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 128:Despite these examples, the majority of enslaved Africans were not able to rely on rulers for help against slaving. Africans living in chiefdoms and villages ruled by allied African authorities were, however, able to use the legal system (Tribunal of Mukanos) in place in the regions under formal Portuguese control […]
** 2016, Thomas Arcaro, Rosemary Haskell, Chinedu Eke, Robert Anderson, Stephen Braye, Ann Cahill, Brian Digre, Anne Bolin, Mathew Gendle, Duane McClearn, Jeffrey Pugh, Laura Roselle, Jean Schwind, Kerstin Sorensen, Anthony Weston, Understanding the Global Experience: Becoming a Responsible World Citizen, Routledge, →ISBN:With ready access to firearms through trade, the slaving Africans held a distinct upper-hand over the groups they preyed upon, which were often politically and socially weakened or destroyed by the trade.
** 2016, Alistair Paterson, A Millennium of Cultural Contact, Routledge, →ISBN, page 117:Significant impacts resulted from slaving; there is evidence of how communities dealt with the threat and benefits of slaving. Africans provided most of the slaves to European slavers. Most slaves were created either to settle debts or raise funds, through warfare, or as punishment for a real or perceived crime.
* (intransitive) To work hard.
    I was slaving all day over a hot stove.
* (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 […]

#### Derived terms

* slave away
* wage-slave

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ “slave”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
* ↑ “slave”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “slave”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* 1 2 “slave, n.$^1$ (and a.)” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989
* ↑ Friedrich Kluge (1899) “Sklave”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 6th edition, Strasbourg: Karl J. Trübner, page 366
* ↑ Korth, Georg (1970) “Zur Etymologie des Wortes 'Slavus' (Sklave)”, in Glotta: Zeitschrift fur Griechische und Lateinische Sprache‎ (in German), volume 48, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, pages 145–153
* ↑ Friedrich Kluge (1989) “Sklave”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 676
* ↑ Köbler, Gerhard (1995) “Sklave”, in Deutsches Etymologisches Rechtswörterbuch‎ (in German), Tübingen: Mohr, →ISBN, page 371
* ↑ Scholten, Daniel (2020) “Sklave und Slawe”, in Deutsch für Dichter und Denker: Unsere Muttersprache in neuem Licht‎, Bright Star Books, →ISBN

### Further reading

* slave (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* slavery on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* master/slave (technology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* avels, evals, selva, Laves, Elvas, Veals, 'alves, Alves, Selva, salve, Levas, laves, vales, veals, valse

## Danish
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* Rhymes: -aːvə

### Noun

slave c (singular definite slaven, plural indefinite slaver)
* slave
    Synonym: træl

#### Derived terms

* slaveri

### Verb

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

## Esperanto
### Etymology

From slavo +‎ -e.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈslave]
* Rhymes: -ave
* Hyphenation: sla‧ve

### Adverb

slave
* In a Slavic language; Slavically
** 2002 November, La Ondo de Esperanto‎: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 knowledgeable 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.
** 2002 March 12, Michael Wolf, “Re: Geografia demando: Vendia”, in soc.culture.esperanto (Usenet):La plej norda loko estis la duoninsulo Rügen (slave: Rujana) kaj la plej suda en suda (Supra) Luzacio.The northernmost place was the Rügen peninsula (Slavically: Rujana) and the southernmost in southern (Upper) Lusatia.
** 2004 July 19, Rafi, “Re: Lingva demando al fakuloj - evoluo de Esperanto”, in soc.culture.esperanto (Usenet):En la angla estas vortoj diversdevenaj (france, ghermane, slave, arabe, ...). Same en multaj lingvoj.In English there are words of diverse origin (from French, Germanic, Slavic, Arabic, ...). It's the same in many languages.

## French
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /slav/
* Audio (Paris):(file)

### Adjective

slave (plural slaves)
* Slav, Slavic
    Les langues slaves. ― The Slavic languages.

#### Derived terms

* panslave
* panslavisme
* panslaviste
* Slave
* slavisant
* slavisante
* slaviser
* slavisme
* slaviste
* slavistique
* slavité
* slavitude
* slavoniser
* slavophile
* slavophilie
* slavophilisme

#### Related terms

* antiesclavagiste
* esclavage
* esclavagiste
* esclave
* esclavon
* proesclavagiste
* slavon

### Noun

slave m (uncountable)
* a 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.Before the 9th century, it is believed that the Slavs all shared a nearly identical language, termed Common Slavic, but no writing before 860 can attest to this.

### References

* “slave”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Further reading

* “slave”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* laves, lavés, levas, salve, valse, valsé

## Italian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈzla.ve/
* Rhymes: -ave
* Hyphenation: slà‧ve

### Adjective

slave
* feminine plural of slavo

### Noun

slave f
* plural of slava

### Anagrams

* Selva, salve, selva, svela, valse

## Latvian
### Noun

slave f (5th declension)
* (dialectal) fame, glory; alternative form of slava

#### Declension
## Middle English
### Noun

slave
* Alternative form of sclave

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Noun

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

#### Derived terms

* slavearbeid
* slavehandel
* slavinne

#### Related terms

* slaveri

### References

* “slave” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

## Norwegian Nynorsk
### Noun

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

#### Derived terms

* slavearbeid
* slavehandel
* slavinne

#### Related terms

* slaveri

### References

* “slave” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

## Serbo-Croatian
### Verb

slave (Cyrillic spelling славе)
* third-person plural present of slaviti