Slav
/slɑːv/ noun, adjective
Forms Slavs Slavi
- noun A member of any of the peoples of Europe who speak the Slavic languages.
- noun (UK, birdwatching) The Slavonian grebe.
- adjective Synonym of Slavic.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English Sclave, borrowed from Medieval Latin Sclavus, from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos); see that entry for more. Doublet of slave and ciao. Displaced native Old English Wined.
Webster’s 1913
- noun One of a race of people occupying a large part of Eastern and Northern Europe, including the Russians, Bulgarians, Roumanians, Servo-Croats, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Wends or Sorbs, Slovaks, etc. [Written also Slave, and Sclav.]
Etymology [A word originally meaning, intelligible, and used to contrast the people so called with foreigners who spoke languages unintelligible to the Slavs; akin to OSlav. slovo a word, slava fame, Skr. çru to hear. Cf. Loud.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “Slav”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details