slavish

comparative more slavish · superlative most slavish · alternative obsolete slaveish

1. In the manner of a slave; abject.

   It is characterized by slavish submission to authority, together with a belief that in that submission the values of scientific thought can be preserved.

   1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 93

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   “You have freed them from higher restraint, Halbert,” answered the Abbot, “and therein taught them to rebel against your own.” / “Fear not that, Edward,” exclaimed Halbert, who never gave his brother his monastic name of Ambrosius; “none obey the command of real duty so well as those who are free from the observance of slavish bondage.”

   1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XV, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 344

2. Utterly faithful; totally lacking originality, creativity, or reflection.

   a slavish reproduction

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   slavish observation of rules

comparative more Slavish · superlative most Slavish

1. archaicPertaining to Slavs or the Slavic languages; Slavic.First known use 19th c.

   The great Russians were first merely a mixture of Swedish, Finnish and Slavish peoples.

   1924, J. E. DeVos, 1500 Years of Europe, p. 400

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   Some time after he proceeded to the University at Prague, in order to prosecute his studies under Professor Czelakowsky, who had removed from Breslau to the University at Prague, as Professor of Slavish languages.

   1863, Colburn's United Service Magazine, Part I, April, p. 559

1. uncountableAny of various Slavic languages, especially Old Church Slavonic.First known use 19th c.