▪ Not from Ar
saqlab but from the same source, ByzGrk
Skláboi, are Eur words for ‘Slavs’, such as Engl
Slav, Fr
slave, Ge
Slawe, etc. – Sources disagree on the origin of the etymon itself, the ByzGrk ethnonym
Skláboi. Rolland2014 follows those who think it is an emic term based on Slavonic *
slava ‘glory, fame’ (< IE *
kleu‑ ‘to hear, reknown’), an idea that, accord. to EtymOnline, is explicitly rejected by »Max Vasmer, the authority for Slavic etymologies«.
1
Pfeiffer1993 (in
DWDS), too, does not trace ByzGrk
Skláboi (var.
Stʰláboi) back to prot-Slav *
slava ‘glory, fame’; rather, he thinks that it is shortened from ByzGrk
Sklavēnoí (older also *
Stʰlabēnoí) ‘Slavs from the Balkanic hinterland’, from the prot-Slav *
slověne (pl.) ‘Slavs’ (sg.
*slověninъ), accord. to
EtymOnline prob. an emic ethnonym related to prot-Slav *
slovo ‘word, speech’, which suggests that the name originally identified a member of a speech community (compare oChSlav
Nemici ‘Germans’, related to
nemu ‘dumb’, > Ar ↗
nimsā, today ‘Austria’). – Some scholars also hold that, in Europe, ByzGrk
Stʰlábos >
Sklábos later also gave the words for ‘slave’: > medLat
Sclavus ‘slave’ > oFr (C13)
esclave > Engl (c. 1300)
sclave,
esclave ‘person who is the chattel or property of another’ (also mHGe
slave ‘Unfreier, Knecht’, cf.
DWDS). The same scholars think that the secondary sense is due to the fact that »many Slavs [were] sold into slavery by conquering peoples« (
EtymOnline). In contrast, Kluge2002 proposes a different etymology for ‘slave’ (C13 Ge
Sklave ‘slave’ < mHGe
sklafe,
slave, from mLat
sclavus < *
scylavus, akin to Grk
skyleúō,
skyláō ‘to make war-booty’, from
skŷlon ‘war-booty’
2
), adding, however, that this word later merged with the Grk ethnonym for the ‘Slavs’, mGrk
sklabēnói, which gave rise to »inappropriate etymological speculation«.
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