“奴隶”连称,起源甚晚,在笔者所经眼的已隶定的甲骨文和金文中,尚未之见,“奴”和“隶”则始见于金文。奴隶,指奴隶社会中没有独立人格、没有任何自由和权利,被奴隶主当作私有财产之人,乃泛指之词。由于造字方法、奴隶性别不同等原因,名称繁多。甲骨卜辞中,多以单音词称之,钟鼎铭文而后,渐见有双音节词。甲文中,通过字形分析,并有文献可证,知为指称奴隶的有:臣、妾、仆、臧、民、奚、众(众人)、羌、姜;已知为战俘并用作人牲而可推知其身分或为奴隶的有:孚、(?)、(?);原来作一女子之私名因用作人牲而被看成是女奴的有:娅、姑、(?)、蛇、(?)、(女黾)、(女龚)、(女四大)、姬、婢等。钟鼎铭文所载的有:奴、隶、甿、庶人(庶民)、鬲、人鬲、黎民等。 “Slave” even said that the origin is very late, in the eyes of the author has been inscribed in the inscriptions on the Oracle and Gold, not yet see the “slaves” and “Li” began to see gold. Slave, refers to the slave society without an independent personality, without any freedom and rights, by the slave owners as private property, is a general term. Due to the method of making characters, slaves of different gender and other reasons, the name range. Inscriptions oracle bones, and more known as single tone words, Zhongding inscriptions later, gradually see the double syllable words. In the text, through the glyph analysis and documentary evidence, it is known that the slaves include Chen, concubines, servants, Zang, Ministers, Xi, all (people), Qiang and Jiang; known as prisoners of war and used as human sacrifices (?), (?); The original name of a woman for being used as human sacrifices and was seen as slaves are: Ya, Gu, (?), Snake , (?), (Nu Wa), (female Gong), (female four), Ji, 婢 and so on. Zhongding inscription contained in: slaves, scribes, rogue, common people (common people), 鬲, human 鬲, Lebanon and so on.