noun / adjective / verb
slave
SLAYV/sleɪv/
A person held as property and forced to serve.
The slave is forced to carry heavy stones for another person's benefit.
Etymology
Latin Sclavus originally meant 'Slav.' Because many Slavs were sold into slavery by conquering peoples, the ethnic name acquired the meaning of a person owned by another.
In context
consider the election of 1800 between a man who had never owned a slave and who despised slavery and a man from Virginia who owned approximately 200 human beings
More examples
- The law treated slaves as property rather than people.
- Merchants grew wealthy from the slave trade.
- The prisoners slaved in the mines for years.
Forms
slave · slaves · slaved · slaving
slavery noun — The condition of being held as property.
enslave verb — To hold someone as property and force service.