Editing Slavs (section)

==Ethnonym==
{{main|Slavs (ethnonym)}}
The oldest mention of the Slavic [[ethnonym]] is from the 6th century AD, when [[Procopius]], writing in [[Byzantine Greek]], used various forms such as ''Sklaboi'' ({{lang|grc|Σκλάβοι}}), ''Sklabēnoi'' ({{lang|grc|Σκλαβηνοί}}), ''Sklauenoi'' ({{lang|grc|Σκλαυηνοί}}), ''Sthlabenoi'' ({{lang|grc|Σθλαβηνοί}}), or ''Sklabinoi'' ({{lang|grc|Σκλαβῖνοι}}),<ref name="procopius"/> and his contemporary [[Jordanes]] refers to the {{lang|la|Sclaveni}} in [[Latin]].<ref name="jordanes"/> The oldest documents written in [[Old Church Slavonic]], dating from the 9th century, attest the autonym as ''Slověne'' ({{lang|cu|Словѣне}}). Those forms point back to a Slavic [[endonym|autonym]], which can be reconstructed in [[Proto-Slavic]] as {{wikt-lang|sla-pro|*slověninъ|*Slověninъ}}, plural ''Slověne''.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

The reconstructed autonym {{lang|sla|*Slověninъ}} is usually considered a derivation from {{lang|sla|slovo}} ("word"), originally denoting "people who speak (the same language)", meaning "people who understand one another", in contrast to the Slavic word denoting "[[German people]]", namely {{wikt-lang|sla-pro|*němьcь}}, meaning "silent, mute people" (from Slavic {{wikt-lang|sla-pro|*němъ}} "[[muteness|mute]], mumbling"). The word ''slovo'' ("word") and the related ''slava'' ("glory, fame") and ''{{lang|mis|sluh}}'' ("hearing") originate from the [[Proto-Indo-European]] root {{wikt-lang|ine-pro|*ḱlew-}} ("be spoken of, glory"), cognate with Ancient Greek {{lang|grc|κλέος}} ({{grc-tr|κλέος}} "fame"), as in the name [[Pericles]], Latin {{wikt-lang|la|clueō}} ("be called"), and English {{wikt-lang|en|loud}}.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

In medieval and early modern sources written in Latin, Slavs are most commonly referred to as ''Sclaveni'' or the shortened version ''Sclavi''.{{sfn|Curta|2001|pp=41–42, 50, 55, 60, 69, 75, 88}}