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Webster 1913 Edition

Slavey

Slav′ey

,
Noun.
A maidservant.
[Colloq. & Jocose Eng.]

Definition 2025

Slavey

Slavey

See also: slavey

English

Alternative forms

Proper noun

Slavey

  1. An Athabascan First Nations people indigenous to the region near the Great Slave Lake in western Canada
  2. A language spoken by the Slavey peoples.

slavey

slavey

See also: Slavey

English

Noun

slavey ‎(plural slaveys or slavies)

  1. (colloquial, now historical) A male servant.
  2. (colloquial, now historical) A maid, maidservant.
    • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not…, Penguin 2012 (Parade's End), p. 81:
      I told a man on the links yesterday that I'd been a slavey for nine months. I was trying to explain why I was a suffragette […].

Etymology

A euphemism for Slave (French Esclave), originally a translation of the Cree word for slave, an appellation the Cree gave several of their traditional enemies. In English, the final e came to be pronounced as if Slave were a native name; this pronunciation was first written Slavé and later Slavey.

The names of the Slave River, Lesser Slave River, Great Slave Lake and Lesser Slave Lake do not necessarily derive from the people now known as Slavey in English.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsleɪvi/

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