Lat. servus ‘Diener, Sklave’, Slav. *orbъ ‘Sklave, Waise, Kind’, Slav. *sirota 'Waise'
Latin servus ‘servant, slave’, Slav. *orbъ ‘slave, orphan, child’, Slav. *sirota ‘orphan’

Summary/Abstract: The oldest names for ‘slave’ in Indo-European languages are connected with the notions ‘captive’, ‘prisoner’, ‘tied’. Taking into consideration this typology we can assume that Lat. servus ‘servant, slave’ might go back to PIE *ser- ‘to tie, to bind’. PIE *or-bho-s, to which Proto-Slav. *orbъ ‘slave, child, orphan’ goes back, may have been formed from *er-/or- ‘to cut, to separate’ > ‘orphan’. The Proto-Slav. word *sirota ‘orphan’ may also have been formed after this pattern

• Details
• Contents