slavey

[sley-vee]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

British Informal: Older Use.

plural

slaveys

a female servant, especially a maid of all work in a boardinghouse.

Slavey

[sley-vee]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

plural

Slaveys ,

plural

Slavey .

a member of a group of Athabascan-speaking First Nations living in the upper Mackenzie River valley region of the Northwest Territories and in parts of British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon Territory.

Slavey

/ ˈ��ɪ��ɪ /

noun

a member of a Dene Native Canadian people of northern Canada

slavey

/ ˈ��ɪ��ɪ /

noun

informal��a female general servant

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Word History and Origins

Origin of slavey¹

First recorded in 1800–10; slave + -y ²

Origin of slavey²

First recorded in 1785–80; from French esclave, literally, “slave,” a loan translation of Cree ��ɲ�� “captive, slave” (the Cree would make raids on and enslave this Athabascan people); the two-syllable pronunciation is a local variant derived from a spelling with the French suffix -ais

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Word History and Origins

Origin of slavey¹

from Athapascan

Origin of slavey²

C19: from _slave + _-y ²

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“I thought I was among free men, not slaveys.”

From

Well, don’t blame me if you find yourself still a slavey five years hence.”

From

They were the usual words that the slavey used when she dragged upstairs of an evening with his tea-things.

From

Wasp seemed to know that Annie was his own particular “slavey,” and insisted on her being constantly within hail of him.

From

At present her conversation was restricted to the man who bought her pictures, and the hard-worked, lodging-house slavey on the not too numerous occasions when she brought up the coals.

From

slave trade Slavic

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