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Home       Photos/ Videos      Directory      Jobs          Home Invites Members Groups Events Careers Videos News Photos Blogs Polls Chat Home > Post Content  WHERE DID THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD 'SLAVE' REALLY COME FROM??? (INTERESTING INFO) (1694 hits) "ORIGIN OF THE WORD 'SLAVE'" [Middle English sclave, from Old French esclave, from Medieval Latin sclvus, from Sclvus, Slav (from the widespread enslavement of captured Slavs in the early Middle Ages); see Slav.] Word History: The derivation of the word slave encapsulates a bit of European history and explains why the two words slaves and Slavs are so similar; they are, in fact, historically identical. The word slave first appears in English around 1290, spelled sclave. The spelling is based on Old French esclave from Medieval Latin sclavus, "Slav, slave," first recorded around 800. Sclavus comes from Byzantine Greek sklabos (pronounced sklävs) "Slav," which appears around 580. Sklavos approximates the Slavs' own name for themselves, the Slovnci, surviving in English Slovene and Slovenian. The spelling of English slave, closer to its original Slavic form, first appears in English in 1538. Slavs became slaves around the beginning of the ninth century when the Holy Roman Empire tried to stabilize a German-Slav frontier. By the 12th century stabilization had given way to wars of expansion and extermination that did not end until the Poles crushed the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald in 1410. · As far as the Slavs' own self-designation goes, its meaning is, understandably, better than "slave"; it comes from the Indo-European root *kleu-, whose basic meaning is "to hear" and occurs in many derivatives meaning "renown, fame." The Slavs are thus "the famous people." Slavic names ending in -slav incorporate the same word, such as Czech Bohu-slav, "God's fame," Russian Msti-slav, "vengeful fame," and Polish Stani-slaw, "famous for withstanding (enemies)."The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Posted By: Siebra Muhammad Monday, October 31st 2011 at 12:22PM Report obscenity | post comment Share | Please Login To Post Comments... Email: Password:   Yes for the SLAVS. You are correct!! Friday, November 4th 2011 at 12:07PM Forward This Blog Entry! Home (Advertise Here) Latest News hbcu motivation: president obama's morehouse college commencement speech explore discounted healthcare insurance options for hbcus! blacks at microsoft (bam) gets involved with first annual appday! new life magazine and 100 black men of long island,inc. health and wellness conference saturday, july 13, 2013 >> more | add Most Popular Bloggers siebra muhammad has logged 91363 blog subscribers! elynor moss has logged 15465 blog subscribers! phil andrews has logged 229 blog subscribers! esther joseph has logged 192 blog subscribers! kimberly easton has logged 1 blog subscribers! >> more | add  Latest Photos >> more | add Home | Careers | Your Sites | Browse Communities | Business Users | Links | Help | Terms | Privacy Policy | About Us | Advertise | Contact Us Created By Dante Lee and Powered By ConnectPlatform.com Copyright © 2011