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I am in the Czech Republic for lectures and meetings with colleagues. This morning I climbed up to the gigantic oppidum at the top of a steep hill outside Prague near the little town of Zbraslav.

Oppidum is a Latin word meaning the main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome, and applied more generally in Latin to smaller urban settlements than cities, equating to "town" in English (bearing in mind that ancient "cities" could be very small by modern standards). The word is derived from the earlier Latin ob-pedum, "enclosed space", possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *pedóm-, "occupied space" or "footprint".

Wikipedia

After agonizing over the pronunciation of the consonant cluster at the beginning of Zbraslav, I speculated over the meaning of the second part of the name (I surmised that the name as a whole means "glory / fame / renown of weapons"). This led to a discussion with my host, Jakub Maršálek, who is well informed about the archeology and history of the region, about the connection between "slave" and "Slav".

I was surprised to learn that the volume of trade in slaves from among the Slavic tribes to purchasers in North Africa and the Middle East was so great that it led to the making of many fortunes for the wealthy of Prague around a thousand years ago. The trade was described in the travel account of Ibrahim ibn Yaqub (fl. 961–62; Jakub's namesake!), a Hispano-Arabic, Sephardi Jewish merchant (?) who is famous for being the first person to mention Prague and its Jewish community in writing.

So let us ponder the etymology of "slave" and its complex relationship with "Slav".

English "slave":

From Middle English, from Old French sclave, from Medieval Latin sclāvus (“slave”), from Late Latin Sclāvus (“Slav”), because Slavs were often forced into slavery in the Middle Ages. The Latin word is from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos), see that entry and Slav for more.

Wiktionary

The derivation of the word slave encapsulates a bit of European history and explains why the two words slave and Slav 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 sklä′vōs) "Slav," which appears around 580. Sklavos approximates the Slavs' own name for themselves, the Slověnci, surviving in English Slovene and Slovenian. The spelling of English slave, closer to its original Slavic form, first appears in English in the 1500s. Slavs became slaves around the beginning of the ninth century when the Holy Roman Empire tried to stabilize a German-Slav frontier. By the 1100s, stabilization had given way to wars of expansion and extermination that did not end until 1410, when the Poles crushed the knights of the Teutonic Order at Grunwald in north-central Poland. · 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)."

American Heritage Dictionary, 5th ed.

Ancient Greek "Σκλάβος":

Probably from earlier Σλαβῆνος (Slabênos) (perhaps from a plural Σλαβῆνοι (Slabênoi)), of unclear (disputed) origin.

It may derive from the Greek verb σκυλάω (skuláō), a variant of σκυλεύω (skuleúō, “to get the spoils of war”) because Slavs were often enslaved.

Alternatively, it may derive from Proto-Slavic *slověne (“Slavs”, or perhaps “those who speak meaningfully”) (plural; with the singular form *slověninъ derived from that), perhaps via Old Church Slavonic словенинъ (sloveninŭ); compare Old Church Slavonic словѣни, словѣнє (slověni, slověne, “Thessalonian Slavs”), Old East Slavic словѣне (slověne, “Slavs near Novgorod”). See *slověninъ for more.

Wiktionary

Proto-Slavic "slověninъ":

Roman Jakobson insists on this etymology: from *slovo (“word”); with link to Old East Slavic кличане (kličane, “hunters, who raise game by shout”) : кличь (kličʹ), and also on the opposition *slověne vs. *němьci.

Trubachev (Трубачёв): Jakobson's etymology is promising, with the verb *slovǫ, *sluti ( “ to speak (understandably) ” ) .

Vasmer: it has nothing to do with *slava ( “ glory, fame ” ) which influenced it in terms of folk etymology later. *slověne can't be formed from *slovo because *-ěninъ, *-aninъ only occurs in derivations from place names, however local name *Slovy is not attested. Most likely it's derived from a hydronym.

Otrębski brings up an interesting parallel ― the Lithuanian Šlavė́nai on river Šlavė̃ which is identical to Proto-Slavic slověne.

Бернштейн repeats this etymology: from Proto-Indo-European *slawos ( “ people, nation, folk ” ) .

Maher agrees with Trubachev's connection of it to *sluti ( “ to be known ” ) ,[1] on the grounds that *slovo ( “ word ” ) is an s-stem, *sloves-, which would have led to an expected form *slovesěni (compare Russian слове́сность ( slovésnostʹ )

Wiktionary

I often close letters with "ciao", which means both "hello; hi" and "bye; goodbye". When I do this, I am essentially saying "I am your slave".

Borrowed from Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”), from Venetian ciao (“hello, goodbye, your (humble) servant”), from Venetian s-ciao / s-ciavo (“servant, slave”), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“Slav, slave”), related also to Italian schiavo, English Slav, slave and Old Venetian S-ciavón ("Slav"), from Latin Sclavonia (“Slavonia”). Not related to Vietnamese chào (“hello, goodbye”).

Wiktionary

The Italian salutation ciao, which is now popular in many parts of the world outside Italy, originated in the dialects of northern Italy. In the dialect of Venice, ciau literally means "servant, slave," and is also used as a casual greeting, "I am your servant." Dialectal ciau corresponds to standard Italian schiavo, "slave," and both words come from Medieval Latin sclāvus. Declaring yourself someone's slave might seem like an extravagant gesture today, but expressions such as Your obedient servant or Your servant, madam were once commonplace in English. Similarly, the Classical Latin word servus meaning "slave" is still used as an informal greeting in southern Germany and in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and other parts of central Europe that were formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the opposite end of the world, in Southeast and East Asia, one even finds words that originally meant "slave" or "your slave" but have developed into pronouns of the first person through their use in showing respect and humility. In Japanese, for example, the word boku is used to mean "I, me," especially by boys and young men, and it comes from a Middle Chinese word meaning "slave" or "servant" and now pronounced pú in Mandarin.

American Heritage Dictionary, 5th ed.

Ciao,

Victor

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