Slav

Dictionary: Slav (släv) pronunciation

n.
A member of one of the Slavic-speaking peoples of eastern Europe.

[Middle English Sclave, from Medieval Latin Sclāvus, from Late Greek Sklabos, alteration of Old Slavic Slověninŭ.]

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Any member of the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in Europe. They live chiefly in eastern and southeastern Europe but also extend across northern Asia to the Pacific. Slavs are customarily subdivided into eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians), western Slavs (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Wends, or Sorbs), and southern Slavs (Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, Slovenes, and Macedonians). Historically, western Slavs were integrated into western Europe; their societies developed along the lines of other western European nations. Eastern and southern Slavs suffered Mongol and Turkish invasions and evolved more autocratic, state-centred forms of government. Religion (mainly Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism) divides Slavs, as does the use of the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. In the Middle Ages, Slavic polities that left a rich cultural heritage developed in Bohemia, Poland, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, but, by the end of the 18th century, all these states had been absorbed by powerful neighbours (the Ottoman Empire, Austria, Hungary, Prussia, Russia). Eastern Slavic history often was marked by unsuccessful attempts to repel Asian invaders. In the 16th century, Muscovy (later Russia) embarked on a course of expansion across northern and central Asia that eventually made it the most powerful Slavic state. Pan-Slavism in the 19th century had some influence on the formation of the new Slavic states after World War I, though Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia — the two attempts to integrate different Slavic peoples into single polities — had both disintegrated by the end of the 20th century, one peacefully and the other violently.

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WordNet: Slav

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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: any member of the people of Eastern Europe or Russian Asia who speak a Slavonic language

The adjective Slav has one meaning:

Meaning #1: speaking a Slavic language
Pertains to noun: Slav (meaning #1)

Translations: Slav

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - slaver
adj. - slavisk

Nederlands (Dutch)
Slavisch

Français (French)
n. - slave
adj. - slave

Deutsch (German)
n. - Slawe
adj. - slawisch

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (εθνολ.) Σλάβος, σλαβική (γλώσσα)
adj. - σλαβικός, Σλάβος

Italiano (Italian)
slavo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - eslavo (m)
adj. - eslávico (m)

Русский (Russian)
славянин, славянка, славянский

Español (Spanish)
n. - eslavo
adj. - eslavo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - slav
adj. - slavisk

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
斯拉夫人, 斯拉夫民族的, 斯拉夫语的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 斯拉夫人
adj. - 斯拉夫民族的, 斯拉夫語的

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 슬라브 민족, 슬라브 말
adj. - 슬라브 민족의, 슬라브 말의

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - スラブ人, スラヴ人
adj. - スラブの, スラブ人の, スラブ語の

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ألسلافي (صفه) سلافي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮סלבי/ת‬
adj. - ‮קשור לסלבים, של הסלבים‬

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	Slav. (abbreviation)
	Rudnik
	Leipzig

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Copyrights:

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more