Sclave

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic variant spelling of slave, referring to a person who is owned by another and forced to work without freedom
2. A historical term for a human being held in bondage, deprived of liberty and treated as property by a master
3. Used in older English writing to mean a person who is legally owned by someone else and compelled to serve them

Etymology: The word "sclave" is an archaic spelling of "Slav," and its story is really the story of "slave." Medieval Latin "sclavus" and Medieval Greek "sklabos" were used for the Slavic peoples of central and eastern Europe, and the name passed into English in the Middle Ages through this Latin form. Over time, the sense of the word narrowed: many Slavs were captured and sold as servants or captives, so "sclavus" came to mean an unfree person, and that meaning spread through the languages of Europe. English thus ended up with two words from the same source. "Slave" took on the meaning of a person held in bondage, while "sclave" kept the ethnic sense of a Slav. The two are doublets, which means they descend from one origin by different routes. Earlier in English, the word for a Slavic person would have been a different native word, which "sclave" displaced.

Synonyms: slave, bondsman, thrall

Antonyms: master, freeman