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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

by 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
[flagged]
- 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
[deleted]
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”).

by jefftk 3y ago

thinkertraveler 3y ago

[flagged]

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

[deleted]

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”).