Slav
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /slɑːv/
rhymes: -ɑːv
Forms: form: more Slav
form: most Slav
Etymology: From Middle English Sclave, borrowed from Medieval Latin Sclavus, from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos); see that entry for more. Doublet of slave and ciao. Displaced native Old English Wined.
Senses: examples: text: Arising out of her intercourse with the Slavs of the interior, Dubrovnik became a very Slav city, both in manners and in sympathy.
ref: 1932, Oona H[oward] Ball, Dalmatia, London: Faber & Faber Limited, […], page 45:
text: If black Persian is what you want, there’s a very Slav coat, full-length, with fuchsia wool lining and with pockets sticking out on either hip, and there’s a three-quarter affair with a small, rolled collar, a narrow tuxedo front bound with silk braid, and a full, loose back.
ref: 1943, The New Yorker, page 48, column 2:
text: She spoke French with a very Slav accent.
ref: 1961, Darrell Bates, The Shell at My Ear, London: Rupert Hart-Davis, […], page 132:
text: The young Jugoslav taxidriver who took us to the airport drove with a discontented and furious disdain. He took a very Slav view of the migration. He had gone out as a boy of 17 eight years before, and cared very little for it.
ref: 1965, Peter Black, The Poms in the Sun, London: Michael Joseph Ltd, page 230:
text: Obliged by my own question to face him if it were to appear as innocent as it actually was, I took in his features. It was not a very Slav face.
ref: 1975, Sarah Gainham [pseudonym; Rachel Ames], To the Opera Ball, London: Macmillan London Limited, →ISBN, page 245:
text: While the social system could thus be improved, [G. Stanley] Hall knew that heredity was more important. He argued that a pound of heredity was “worth a hundredweight of education.” It was necessary to pay attention to better breeding: “The nation that breeds best, be it Mongol, Slav, Teuton or Saxon, will rule the world in the future.”
ref: 1986, Clarence J. Karier, Scientists of the Mind: Intellectual Founders of Modern Psychology, Urbana, Ill.; Chicago, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 183:
text: The drawing by Tchelitchew is beautiful, but not at all like the character of the gardener whom it portrays. He was an educated head gardener. This is a peasant; a very Slav peasant at that.
ref: 1991, John Lowe, Edward James, Poet, Patron, Eccentric: A Surrealist Life, London: Collins, →ISBN, pages 137–138:
text: ‘Zorka is a strange name for an English girl,’ Nicky said musingly as they sat down, wanting to know more about the girl who was his daughter. ‘It is a very Slav name. Is your sister perhaps very Slav, Captain Fielding? Is she more Slav than English?’ / Amused by Kechko’s continuing interest in his family Stephen took the plate proferred him, saying truthfully, ‘My sister is very Slav in both looks and temperament.’
ref: 1994, Margaret Pemberton, Zadruga: The Story of a Family and a Country, London: Corgi Books, Transworld Publishers Ltd, →ISBN, pages 496–497:
text: The big advantage of learning Russian is that, once you’re proficient, you can understand other Slav languages such as Czech, Polish or Bulgarian.
ref: 2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, in CNN:
glosses: Synonym of Slavic.
synonyms: word: Slavic
Derived terms: Slav Defence
Slav Defense