EN
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.