Other forms: slaves
A slave is somebody owned by another and forced to work without pay. Freed slaves, a slave ship, slave labour.
Historians increasingly write enslaved person instead, because slave names a condition imposed as though it were an identity. Slavery is illegal everywhere and still exists, with tens of millions estimated in forced labour today. Note that the word comes from Slav, from the enslavement of Slavic peoples in medieval Europe.
1nounslaveSomebody owned by another and forced to work without pay.
“In ancient Rome, a slave could sometimes buy his freedom.”
slave is a person held in bondage.
Medieval Latin sclavus comes from Sclavus, a Slav, from the enslavement of Slavic peoples in medieval Europe.
Middle English
sclave
English, today
slave
Built from
From Middle English sclave. Middle English sclave, from Old French esclave, from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”), from Latin Sclavus (“Slav”), traditionally assumed to be because Slavs were often forced into slavery in the Middle Ages. The Latin word is from Medieval Greek Σκλάβος; see that entry and Slav for more. Displaced native þēow. thrall and bondsman/bondswoman, however, remain common synonyms. a doublet of ciao and Slav. An alternative hypothesis derives sclavus from Ancient Greek σκῡλεύω, σκῡλάω (“to strip or despoil a slain enemy”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA