Meanings
slavey1
plural slaveys · plural slavies
- colloquialhistoricalA male servant.
- colloquialhistoricalA female domestic servant; a maid or maidservant.
"The short-haired slavey who had opened the door now put in an appearance as waiter."
1887, Nellie Bly, Ten Days in a Mad-House, Norman L. Munro, published 1887, page 122 more examples
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 […]
1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not… (Parade's End), Penguin, published 2012, page 81"Doing? Not a Dam' thing. I mean, I was sitting on the bed lighting a cigarette. We'd just come upstairs. Everything was all right; old Peabody in Sydney and the slavey given a night off to go to the pictures."
1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 82
Slavey2
plural Slaveys · alternative Slave · alternative Slavé
- A member of an Athabascan First Nations people indigenous to the region near the Great Slave Lake in western Canada
Synonyms: Awokanak, Deh Cho, Deh Gah Got'ine
alternative Slave · alternative Slavé
- A language spoken by the Slavey peoples.
In the Northwest Territories, the languages with official status are English, French, Dëne Sųłıné (Chipewyan), Nēhiyawēwin (Cree), Dene Kǝdǝ́ (Northern Slavey), Dene Zhatıé (Southern Slavey), Dinjii Zhu’ Ginjik (Gwich’in), Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun and Tłįcho.
2025, Marie-Ève Hudon, Language regimes in the Provinces and the Territories, Ottawa, Canada: Library of Parliament, page 30
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA member of an Athabascan First Nations people indigenous to the region near the Great Slave Lake in western Canada
More synonyms by meaning
nouna female domestic servant who does all kinds of menial work
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
slavey · noun
- Ancient GreekΣκλαβηνός (Sklabēnós)
- Medieval GreekΣκλᾰ́βος (Sklắbos)
- Late LatinSclavus
- Medieval Latinsclavus
- Old Frenchesclave
- Middle Englishsclave
- Englishslave
- Englishslavey
From slave + -y. Piecewise doublet of Slavic.
Full word history & related roots →Slavey · noun, proper noun
- FrenchEsclave
- EnglishSlavey
From French Esclave, a calque of a Cree name, as the Cree called these people (and several other traditional enemies) slaves. 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.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French Esclave, esclave
- Esclavemember of Athabascan people
- esclavelanguage
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with slavey
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
slavey. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slavey
“slavey.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slavey. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “slavey,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slavey.
Source: slavey on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.