10 ms·

Speaking of Slavic etymology and robota, "slave" is derived from "Slav".

• thinkertraveler 3y ago
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• jefftk 3y ago
  slave (n.) c. 1300, sclave, esclave, "person who is the chattel or property of another," from Old French esclave (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin Sclavus "slave" (source also of Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo), originally "Slav" (see Slav); so used in this secondary sense because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples. https://www.etymonline.com/word/slave https://www.etymonline.com/word/slave
  • thinkertraveler 3y ago
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    • droopyEyelids 3y ago
      I wonder if the use of 'ottoman' as 'footrest' in English has a similar origin story. Showing the soles of your feet to someone is extremely disrespectful in many middle eastern cultures including the Ottoman culture.
      • saalweachter 3y ago
        Not really; it was more along the lines of "Ottoman-style seating" being referred to as "an ottoman", in the same way people refer to "a long chair" (chaise longue) as a "chaise".
  • deleted 3y ago
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  • thriftwy 3y ago
    The first part makes sense, the second one doesn't: where would that 'c' come from? No such thing as Sclavic people, never was. Nevertheless, I'm not sure if there is any reflection on the fact that mediterranean pirates (and nomadic tribes further east) plundered Balkans for captives and southwestern europeans then bought them. And that, perhaps, was a suboptimal way to behave.
    • jefftk 3y ago
      > No such thing as Sclavic people, never was. Sounds like there was to the Greeks: Slav (n.) "one of the people who inhabit most of Eastern Europe," late 14c., Sclave, from Medieval Latin Sclavus (c. 800), from Byzantine Greek Sklabos (c. 580), from a shortening of Proto-Slavic sloveninu "a Slav"* -- https://www.etymonline.com/word/Slav https://www.etymonline.com/word/Slav
    • int_19h 3y ago
      It's not just the pirates, and not just Balkans, but also e.g. the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Crusades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Crusades As for why there's a "k" there - Greeks would naturally adapt any foreign word to the phonotactics of their language, which does not have "σλ" as a valid syllable onset, but does have "σκλ".
  • lo_zamoyski 3y ago
    Indeed, which is interesting, because “Slav” comes from the word for “speech” or “word”. In Polish, for example, “word” is “słowo”, whereas “Slavs” is “słowianie”. Germans are “niemcy” from “niemy”, meaning “mute”. So to be a Slav meant to be intelligible and able to speak, whereas Germans were unintelligible or “mute”. Compare this to “barbarian”, from the Greek, which comes from the sound of the unintelligible speech of foreigners to the Greek ear (“barbarbar”, almost like “blah blah blah”).
• thinkertraveler 3y ago
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• thinkertraveler 3y ago
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• thinkertraveler 3y ago
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• thinkertraveler 3y ago
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• thinkertraveler 3y ago
  It's not derived, it's used - first by defeated.
  • Dylan16807 3y ago
    > It's not. How is it not? One of your other comments sounds like you agree with the etymology jefftk cited? But that says the exact same thing. The word slav was first, and the word slave was made from it. Something being "propaganda" and "revenge" does not stop it from being the origin of a word. Edit: Oh, you elaborated slightly. > It's not derived, it's used - first by defeated. That's what derived means. They took a word and used it to make a new word.
    • thinkertraveler 3y ago
      the other word is used in such way only as sounds similar to the second but has different meaning
• thinkertraveler 3y ago
  That's nonsense, not true and a libel. That words are INDEPENDENT: slave doesn't mean faming, people names: Bogusław mean Godfaming - not slave of god, Mieczysław mean Swordfaming - not slave of sword.