# Enslave
## Overview
**Enslave** means to reduce a person to slavery — to deprive them of freedom and subject them to the will of another as property. The word is a 17th-century English formation, but its core component **slave** carries one of the most historically charged etymologies in any language.
## Etymology
The verb is formed from the English causative prefix *en-* ('to cause to be in a state') plus **slave**. The prefix follows the same pattern as *en-noble*, *en-rich*, *en-danger* — verbs meaning 'to put into' a condition.
Middle English *slave* entered the language in the 13th century from Old French *esclave*, which came from Medieval Latin *sclavus* ('slave'). This word is identical with *Sclavus* ('Slav, Slavic person').
During the early medieval period (roughly 6th-10th centuries), warfare between the Frankish Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, and various Slavic peoples resulted in the mass capture and sale of Slavic prisoners. The trade was extensive: Slavic captives were sold through markets in Venice, Verdun, and Prague to buyers across Europe and the Islamic world. The association between Slavic ethnicity and enslavement became so pervasive that *sclavus* displaced the classical Latin *servus* as the standard word for an enslaved person in most Western European languages.
This displacement is visible across the language family: German *Sklave*, French *esclave*, Spanish *esclavo*, Italian *schiavo*, Portuguese *escravo*, Dutch *slaaf* — all derive from the ethnic name rather than from Latin *servus*.
The Slavic peoples' name for themselves — preserved in Slovene, Slovak, and the broader term Slav — derives from Proto-Slavic *\*slovo* ('word, speech'). The Slavs were 'the people who speak' — whose language was intelligible, as opposed to foreigners whose speech was incomprehensible. This parallels the Greek *barbaros* ('barbarian'), which originally meant 'one who speaks unintelligibly' (bar-bar being an imitation of incomprehensible speech).
The Slavic term for Germanic peoples, *Nemtsi* (surviving in Russian *nemets* 'German'), derives from a root meaning 'mute' or 'incomprehensible' — the Germans were those who could not speak properly.
## Historical Context
The verb **enslave** appeared in English in the 1640s, during the period of expanding Atlantic slavery. While the noun *slave* had been in English for centuries, the specific verb form gained currency as the transatlantic slave trade intensified and English-speaking colonists became directly involved in the practice.
The passive form 'enslaved person' has gained preference in modern historical writing over the noun 'slave,' on the grounds that it emphasizes the act done to people rather than defining them by their condition.
## Servus vs. Sclavus
The older Latin word *servus* ('slave, servant') survived in English through a different channel, producing **servant**, **serve**, **service**, **serf**, and **servile**. These words retain the classical Latin root while **slave** carries the medieval replacement. The coexistence of both word families in English — serve/servant from *servus* and slave/enslave from *sclavus* — preserves the historical layering of the language.
## Related Forms
The core family includes **slave** (noun), **slavery** (the institution), **slavish** (adjective, 'like a slave'), **enslaver** (agent noun), and **enslavement** (the act or condition).