This conversion of a national into an appellative name appears to have arisen in the viiith century, in the Oriental France, where the princes and bishops were rich in Sclavonian captives, not of the Bohemian, (exclaims Jordan,) but of Sorabian race. From thence the word was extended to the general use, to the modern languages, and even to the style of the last Byzantines, (see the Greek and Latin Glossaries and Ducange.) The confusion of the
or Servians, with the Latin
Servi, was still more fortunate and familiar, (Constant.
Porphyr. de Administrando, Imperio, c. 32, p. 99.)