Worked extremely hard at something difficult or unpleasant, often as if forced to do it.
From 'slave' (a person forced to work without pay), which comes from 'Slav'—medieval traders labeled Slavic prisoners as slaves. The verb evolved to mean 'work like a slave,' emphasizing exhausting labor.
This is a fascinating and unfortunate example of how historical trauma gets embedded in vocabulary—the word 'slave' itself comes from an ethnic group, showing how language can carry dark historical prejudices.
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