Definition of "Slav"

Arising out of her intercourse with the Slavs of the interior, Dubrovnik became a very Slav city, both in manners and in sympathy.

1932, Oona H[oward] Ball, Dalmatia, London: Faber & Faber Limited, […], page 45

If black Persian is what you want, there’s a very Slav coat, full-length, with fuchsia wool lining and with pockets sticking out on either hip, and there’s a three-quarter affair with a small, rolled collar, a narrow tuxedo front bound with silk braid, and a full, loose back.

1943, The New Yorker, page 48, column 2

She spoke French with a very Slav accent.

1961, Darrell Bates, The Shell at My Ear, London: Rupert Hart-Davis, […], page 132

The young Jugoslav taxidriver who took us to the airport drove with a discontented and furious disdain. He took a very Slav view of the migration. He had gone out as a boy of 17 eight years before, and cared very little for it.

1965, Peter Black, The Poms in the Sun, London: Michael Joseph Ltd, page 230

Obliged by my own question to face him if it were to appear as innocent as it actually was, I took in his features. It was not a very Slav face.

1975, Sarah Gainham [pseudonym; Rachel Ames], To the Opera Ball, London: Macmillan London Limited, page 245

While the social system could thus be improved, [G. Stanley] Hall knew that heredity was more important. He argued that a pound of heredity was “worth a hundredweight of education.” It was necessary to pay attention to better breeding: “The nation that breeds best, be it Mongol, Slav, Teuton or Saxon, will rule the world in the future.”

1986, Clarence J. Karier, Scientists of the Mind: Intellectual Founders of Modern Psychology, Urbana, Ill., Chicago, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, page 183

The drawing by Tchelitchew is beautiful, but not at all like the character of the gardener whom it portrays. He was an educated head gardener. This is a peasant; a very Slav peasant at that.

1991, John Lowe, Edward James, Poet, Patron, Eccentric: A Surrealist Life, London: Collins, pages 137–138

‘Zorka is a strange name for an English girl,’ Nicky said musingly as they sat down, wanting to know more about the girl who was his daughter. ‘It is a very Slav name. Is your sister perhaps very Slav, Captain Fielding? Is she more Slav than English?’ / Amused by Kechko’s continuing interest in his family Stephen took the plate proferred him, saying truthfully, ‘My sister is very Slav in both looks and temperament.’

1994, Margaret Pemberton, Zadruga: The Story of a Family and a Country, London: Corgi Books, Transworld Publishers Ltd, pages 496–497