Slavery is the system of owning people and forcing them to work. Abolish slavery, the legacy of slavery, modern slavery.
It has existed in most societies in history and was abolished in law almost everywhere by the twentieth century. Modern slavery is the legal term for forced labour and trafficking, which persists on a large scale, and enslaved person is the term now preferred to slave.
1nounslaveryThe system of owning people and forcing them to work.
“Britain abolished slavery across most of its empire in 1833.”
slavery is a system.
Middle English
sclave
English
slave
English, today
slavery
Built from
From slave + -ery. slave comes 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