# All slavic languages: words for child, slave, farmhand



## klemen

I read that word for child in many slavic languages has the same root than words for slave or farmhand. I wish to prove if it is true or false.

Please write words for child, slave and farmhand in different slavic languages.

Slovene:
child - otrok
slave - suženj
farmhand - hlapec


----------



## ilocas2

Czech:

child - dítě
slave - otrok
farmhand - čeledín

(chlapec = boy)


----------



## Michalko

Slovak:

child - dieťa
slave - otrok
farmhand - čeľadník

chlapec = boy


----------



## Lychnidos

Macedonian:

child - дете(dete), челад(čelad)*, чедо(čedo)
slave - роб(rob)
farmhand - аргат(argat)**

* plural only, archaic
** turkism, most common word; others are possible, thought non that I know of similar to the previously stated.

Edit: "Чедо" didn't come to my mind at all when I first replied(thanks Christo), also раб is used in the same way as in bulgarian


----------



## Милан

Serbian:

child - дете(dete), чељад(čelјad)*
slave - роб(rob)
farmhand - радник (radnik), надничар (nadničar), аргат(argat)**
* plural only, archaic
** more archaic than čeljad


----------



## Christo Tamarin

*Bulgarian:
*
child: *дете* (<дѣтѧ), чедо (<чѧдо), отроче (<отрочѧ)
slave: *роб *(раб in the expression "раб Божи", God's servant)
farmhand: *ратай*, *аргат*(ин) - (via Turkish from Greek εργάτης); no allusion to agriculture in neither word, just a servant.

Bulgarian челяд (<челѧдь) should be translated as family.
Bulgarian отрок is not used anymore and not assigned a value in the modern language.

*Etymological inquiries*:

First, not involving Slavic yet, let us consider German *Arbeit *(_work, labor_) and Greek/Latin/English *ορφανός*/*orphanus(orbus)/orphan. *
At the Indo-European (IE) level, they are cognates. The connection can be explained in this way: a patriarchal family holding a farm, many children, the old father dies, the oldest sun has already taken the care of the farm, it is his farm now, his younger brothers - they are now *orphan*s - they have nothing else to do - they have to work (*arbeit*en müssen) for their older brother just for food and shelter.

Next, we have these cognates: German *Arbeit *(_work, labor_) and Slavic работа (*rabota*/robota < orbota; meaning _work, labor_ as in German), and also Slavic *раб/роб* (rab/rob < orbъ; meaning _slave, servant_).

Next, we have old Russian *robę (<orbent) looking like a diminutive of rob (orbъ) probably meaning both orphan and slave, later changing to *rеbę and changing the meaning to *child* in modern Russian: ребята(Pl.:rebjata), ребенок(Sg.:rebjonok).

The Slavic word *чѧдо *(Bulg. чедо, Russ. чадо) meaning _child_ is a cognate of German *Kind* and English *kin*.

The Slavic *дѣтѧ* (Bulg. *дете*) is a distant cognate of Latin _filius _both meaning at very ancient times _suckling child_.

The Slavic *отрокъ *(otrokъ) is a distant calque of Latin _infans_ (>Fr.*enfant* meaning _child_) both meaning "not speaking yet". Later, the Slavic *отрокъ *(otrokъ) changed its value first to _child_, and then to _slave/servant_. The diminutive *отроче *is still used in modern Bulgarian meaning _child_.

Etymologically, the Slavic *ратай *(ratai) at some times meant _ploughman. _In modern Bulgarian it means just _servant_.


----------



## Michalko

It should be said I never heard čeledín/čeľadník in real life. It is definitely an archaic word.


----------



## Christo Tamarin

The protoSlavic *cholpъ does not have any certain etymology. It could mean boy or slave/servant.

In Bulgarian, we have *хлапе* (chlape) and *хлапак *(chlapak) both meaning _boy_, both diminutives of an old *хлапъ.

[URL=http://vasmer.info/хх/холоп/]Vasmer[/URL]


----------



## marco_2

So we have a lot of common words but with a bit different meanings:

*Polish:
*
child - *dziecko
*
slave - *niewolnik
*
farmhand - *robotnik rolny, *(older) *parobek

*
And:

*czeladź *- (archaic) collective for_ servants_
*czeladnik *- _journeyman; apprentice_
*robotnik* - _workman_
*chłop *-_ peasant;_ (colloquially and jokingly) _man; husband_
*chłopiec *- _boy; _*chłopak *- _boy; boyfriend_
*rataj - *an old word: in the Middle Ages - a peasant who got a loan from a landlord to start a farm (but he was obliged to work on the lord's fields in return); later: _a hired farmhand_


----------



## bibax

Christo Tamarin said:


> Next, we have old Russian *robę (<orbent) looking like a diminutive of rob (orbъ) probably meaning both orphan and slave, later changing to *rеbę and changing the meaning to *child* in modern Russian: ребята(Pl.:rebjata), ребенок(Sg.:rebjonok).


In Czech: *robě* (pl. robata) = child, infant, baby; dim. *robátko* (pl. robátka); _... somewhat bookish words._


----------



## Panceltic

Don't forget there is also *dete* in Slovenian! Meaning a small child, an infant.


----------



## marco_2

P.S. I remembered that in Old Polish there existed the word *otrok *meaning _a child _and *otroczę *- _a young boy_, you can find it in old Bible translations.


----------



## DarkChild

Christo Tamarin said:


> *Bulgarian:
> *
> child: *дете* (<дѣтѧ), чедо (<чѧдо), отроче (<отрочѧ)


Also *рожба. 
*
But I feel like only дете denotes a generic child. As in Johnny is a child. The other (чедо, отроче and рожба) are more along the lines of offspring.


----------



## metaphrastes

For what is worth, this semantic correlation between a _child _and a _servant _is to be found also in Greek. There is the word *παῖς *(_*paîs*_, or _*pes *_in modern pronunciation, the root from whence came _pedagogy, paediatrics, &c_), that means primarily _a child, boy, youth, maiden, _but also _a servant, slave, attendant. _One may draw also a parallel with modern languages as the English usage of _boy (office-boy) _or the French usage of _garçon, _one who attends to the tables at a restaurant. Besides that, this Greek word may be, in the LXX, the rendering of the Hebrew word _*na'ar*_, that means either _a boy, lad, youth, _as well _a servant, retainer.
_
There is also the feminine, diminutive form *παιδίσκη *(*paidíske *or *pedíski *in modern pronunciation), that means primarily _a young girl, a maiden_, but also, colloquially, _a young female slave, a maid-servant_. Its usage in OT Scriptures sometimes matches the Hebrew _*na'arah*, _that means _girl, damsel, female servant_.

I know I digress from the Slavic roots, and I cannot speak about any possible common Indo-European root with Slavic words, but it seems clear that culturally this semantic correlation or identification between a _child _and a _servant _is not an exclusively Slavic thing, but has some claims to antiquity and universality.


----------



## Eirwyn

Russian

child: *ребёнок* (rebionok) - singular / *дети* (deti) - plural, *дитё *(ditio) or *дитя *(ditia), *чадо *(čado)
(from Old Russian ребенъкъ < *роб*енъкъ)

slave: *раб *(rab), *холоп *(holop), *невольник *(nevoljnik)

farmhand: *батрак *(batrak)


----------



## Korisnik116

A child would be ‘dijete’, ‘čedo’ (not really used except literary and in some phrases), a slave ‘rob’, ‘serv’ (the same as for ‘čedo’, rare), and for the lattermost there are ‘kmet’ (a peasant in the Middle Ages), ‘težak’, ‘ratar’, ‘zemljoradnik’, and even ‘argat’, apparently, which I've never heard.


----------

