Deslavify

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To free from conditions of servitude or forced labor; to restore personal freedom to someone previously enslaved; to eliminate bondage or dependence on another’s control
2. The process of ending involuntary servitude and granting autonomy; the act of releasing someone from restrictions of forced labor; restoring liberty by removing conditions of captivity
3. To remove the status of being a slave and grant emancipation; to abolish conditions of subjugation and compulsive labor; to transition an individual or group from servitude to freedom

Etymology: The root of this verb is one of the more surprising words in English. "Slave" comes from Medieval Latin "sclavus", which in turn comes from "Slav", the name of the Slavic peoples, many of whom were captured and sold into bondage in early medieval Europe. The association was so strong that the ethnonym itself came to mean a person held in servitude. "Deslavify" is a later formation built on that noun. It adds the prefix "de-", from Latin, meaning "remove" or "undo", and the suffix "-ify", from Old French "-ifier" and ultimately Latin "-ificare", meaning "make into" or "cause to be". Together they give the sense of making someone no longer a slave. It is a rare, mostly literary word, and the sources do not give a firm first date for it.