Slav
English edit
Etymology edit
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.
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /slɑːv/, /slæv/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -ɑːv, -æv
Noun edit
Slav (plural Slavs or (archaic) Slavi)
- A member of any of the peoples of Europe who speak the Slavic languages.
- (British, birdwatching) The Slavonian grebe.
Usage notes edit
- From the mid 18th to mid 19th century, the plural Slavi was more common; since then Slavs has predominated.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
a member of a group of peoples in Eastern Europe speaking a Slavic language
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Adjective edit
Slav (comparative more Slav, superlative most Slav)
- Synonym of Slavic.
- 1932, Oona H[oward] Ball, Dalmatia, London: Faber & Faber Limited, […], page 45:
- Arising out of her intercourse with the Slavs of the interior, Dubrovnik became a very Slav city, both in manners and in sympathy.
- 1943, The New Yorker, page 48, column 2:
- If black Persian is what you want, there’s a very Slav coat, full-length, with fuchsia wool lining and with pockets sticking out on either hip, and there’s a three-quarter affair with a small, rolled collar, a narrow tuxedo front bound with silk braid, and a full, loose back.
- 1961, Darrell Bates, The Shell at My Ear, London: Rupert Hart-Davis, […], page 132:
- She spoke French with a very Slav accent.
- 1965, Peter Black, The Poms in the Sun, London: Michael Joseph Ltd, page 230:
- The young Jugoslav taxidriver who took us to the airport drove with a discontented and furious disdain. He took a very Slav view of the migration. He had gone out as a boy of 17 eight years before, and cared very little for it.
- 1975, Sarah Gainham [pseudonym; Rachel Ames], To the Opera Ball, London: Macmillan London Limited, →ISBN, page 245:
- Obliged by my own question to face him if it were to appear as innocent as it actually was, I took in his features. It was not a very Slav face.
- 1986, Clarence J. Karier, Scientists of the Mind: Intellectual Founders of Modern Psychology, Urbana, Ill., Chicago, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 183:
- While the social system could thus be improved, [G. Stanley] Hall knew that heredity was more important. He argued that a pound of heredity was “worth a hundredweight of education.” It was necessary to pay attention to better breeding: “The nation that breeds best, be it Mongol, Slav, Teuton or Saxon, will rule the world in the future.”
- 1991, John Lowe, Edward James, Poet, Patron, Eccentric: A Surrealist Life, London: Collins, →ISBN, pages 137–138:
- The drawing by Tchelitchew is beautiful, but not at all like the character of the gardener whom it portrays. He was an educated head gardener. This is a peasant; a very Slav peasant at that.
- 1994, Margaret Pemberton, Zadruga: The Story of a Family and a Country, London: Corgi Books, Transworld Publishers Ltd, →ISBN, pages 496–497:
- ‘Zorka is a strange name for an English girl,’ Nicky said musingly as they sat down, wanting to know more about the girl who was his daughter. ‘It is a very Slav name. Is your sister perhaps very Slav, Captain Fielding? Is she more Slav than English?’ / Amused by Kechko’s continuing interest in his family Stephen took the plate proferred him, saying truthfully, ‘My sister is very Slav in both looks and temperament.’
