slave

Meaning

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. 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. An abject person.
4. One who has no power of resistance to something, one who surrenders to or is under the domination of something.
5. A submissive partner in a BDSM relationship who consensually submits to, sexually or personally, serving one or more masters or mistresses.
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. A device (such as a secondary flash or hard drive) that is subject to the control of another (a master).

servant

serf

female slave

male slave

endentured

woman slave

break one’s back

hard worker

work hard

bond-servant

busy bee

domestic help

Helot

in ancient times

poor people

engaged worker

land-slave

slave away

purchased captive

purchased slave

slave drive

slave device

hack work

mancipee

black person

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/sleɪv/

Inherited from Middle English sclave, from Old French sclave, from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”), from Late Latin Sclavus (“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. Displaced native Old English þēow. Thrall and bondsman/bondswoman, however, remain common synonyms. Doublet of ciao and Slav. An alternative hypothesis derives sclavus from Ancient Greek σκῡλεύω (skūleúō), σκῡλάω (skūláō, “to strip or despoil a slain enemy”).

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