An alternative hypothesis derives sclavus from Ancient Greek σκῡλεύω, σκῡλάω.

• enPR: slāv, IPA: /sleɪv/

slave (plural slaves)

1. A person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's volition and control.
2. (figuratively) A drudge; one who labors or is obliged (e.g. by prior contract) to labor like a slave with limited rights, e.g. an indentured servant.
3. (figuratively) An abject person.

   Synonyms: wretch

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene i] ↗:

     Art thou the ſlaue that with thy breath haſt kill'd / Mine innocent child?

4. (figuratively) One who has no power of resistance to something, one who surrenders to or is under the domination of something.

   a slave to passion, to strong drink, or to ambition

5. (BDSM) A submissive partner in a BDSM relationship who consensually submits to, sexually or personally, serving one or more masters or mistresses.

   Hypernyms: sub

6. A sex slave, a person who is forced against their will to perform, for another person or group, sexual acts on a regular or continuing basis.
7. (engineering, computing, photography) A device (such as a secondary flash or hard drive) that is subject to the control of another (a master).

   Synonyms: secondary, worker

   Antonyms: master, primary

• French: esclave, serf, serve
• German: Sklave, Sklavin
• Italian: schiavo, schiava
• Portuguese: escravo, escrava
• Russian: раб
• Spanish: esclavo, esclava

• French: esclave
• German: Sklave, Sklavin
• Italian: schiavo
• Portuguese: escravo, escrava
• Russian: раб
• Spanish: esclavo

• French: esclave
• German: Sklave, Sklavin
• Portuguese: escravo, escrava
• Spanish: esclavo, esclava

• German: Sexsklave, Sexsklavin
• Portuguese: escravo, escrava
• Russian: раб

• German: Slave, Folgegerät
• Portuguese: escravo
• Russian: ведо́мый

slave (slaves, present participle slaving; simple past and past participle slaved)

1. To work as a slaver, to enslave people.
   • 1606, John Marston, The Wonder of Women:

     MASSINISSA: Wilt thou be slaved?
     SOPHONISBA: No, free

   • 1908, James Wells, Stewart of Lovedale: The Life of James Stewart, D.D., M.D., Hon. F.R.G.S., page 88:

     The truth is from the Zambesi to Lake Nyasa on the north and east banks of the river, there is nothing but slaving — Africans selling each other . . .

2. (intransitive) To work hard.

   I was slaving all day over a hot stove.

3. (transitive) To place a device under the control of another.

   to slave a hard disk

   • 2005, Simon Millward, Fast Guide to Cubase SX, page 403:

     Slaving one digital audio device to another unit using timecode alone results in time-based synchronisation […]

• Italian: sgobbare
• Portuguese: mourejar, escravo

1. Alternative form of Slavey
2. Synonym of Sclavia

slave (plural slaves)

1. Obsolete form of Slav
   • 1766, An Universal History, from the Earliest Account of Time, volume XLIV, index:

     Slaves or Slavì of Pomerania, with their confederates defeated near Lunden in Scania, […]

   • 1853, Maximilian Schele De Vere, Outlines of Comparative Philology, page 350:

     It extended then far into Hungary, and the ancient limits of the land of these so-called Pannonic Slaves are the same which at present mark the extent of the language. […] A considerable number of Slaves in the Russian province of Silesia are said to speak the same languages slightly modified.