Slavic, a. and n.
(ˈslɑːvɪk, ˈslævɪk)
Also Sclavic, Slaavic.
[f. Slav n. + -ic.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to the Slavs; Slavonian; Slavonic.
| α 1813 Q. Rev. Oct. 256 Classes and families of languages... Indoeuropean... Sclavic. Ibid. 281 The connexion of the Sclavonian, and Lithuanian, which we have comprehended in the title of Sclavic family. 1864 Athenæum 2 Apr. 467/3 The ‘Sclavic Athens’ [as] she [Ragusa] was named in the seventeenth century. |
| β 1842 Prichard Nat. Hist. Man 184 The Slavic, or Sclavonic race, is a 4th Indo-European family. 1849 Paton Highl. & Isl. Adriatic I. xii. 157 The most advanced of all the Slaavic nations of central Europe. 1866 Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 389/2 The author of a Slavic Grammar. 1882 W. B. Weeden Soc. Law Labor 11 The Slavic development differs from other Aryan experience. |
B. n. a. A Slavonic form of speech.
| 1812 A. Murray Let. 8 Aug. in T. Constable A. Constable (1873) I. 333, I wish, however, to have about 100 or 150 printed pages additional on the Latin, Slavic, Persic, and Celtic. 1850 [see Church Slavic s.v. church n. 18]. 1866 Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 389/2 The lines of distinction..between old Slavic and Russian. 1876 Whitney Language and its Study vi. 214 Old Slavonic, or the Church Slavic, having been adopted by a large part of the Slavonian races as their sacred language. |
b. Comb., as
Slavic-speaking adj.| 1942 Amer. Council of Learned Societies Bull. No. 34. 58 (heading) The Slavic-speaking groups of the United States and Canada. 1980 Word 1979 XXX. 19 Albanians in Yugoslavia are classified as a nationality (narodnost) within a population consisting predominantly of Slavic-speaking peoples. |
Hence
ˈSlavicize v. trans., to render Slav-like, to convert into Slavs.
| 1887 Pall Mall G. 22 Dec. 8/1 The Servian individuality cannot be Germanized, but it might be Slavicized. 1898 Contemp. Rev. Feb. 172 Any attempt to Slavicise the Germans of Bohemia. |