Slave

A person who is owned and controlled by another person and forced to work without freedom or fair pay. Slavery is a severe violation of human rights.

“Slave” comes from Medieval Latin “sclavus,” which originally meant “Slav,” referring to Slavic people. Many Slavs were captured and enslaved in parts of medieval Europe, and their ethnic name sadly became the general word for an enslaved person. English adopted this term with its terrible historical weight.