Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/slověninъ

• Roman Jakobson believes the word is from *slovo (“word”), with a link to Old East Slavic кличане (kličane, “hunters, who raise game by shout”) : Russian кличь (kličʹ), and also perceives an opposition of *slověne vs. *němьci.

• Trubachev (Трубачёв) says Jakobson's etymology is promising, with the verb *slovǫ, *sluti (“to speak (understandably)”).

• Vasmer says it has nothing to do with *slava (“glory, fame”) which influenced it in terms of folk etymology later. *slověne can't be formed from *slovo because *-ěninъ, *-aninъ only occurs in derivations from place names, however a local name *Slovy is not attested. Most likely it's derived from a hydronym.

Compare Old East Slavic Словутичь (Slovutičĭ) ― Dnepr epithet, Russian Слуя (Sluja) ― affluent of Вазуза (Vazuza), Polish river names Sława, Sławica, Serbo-Croatian Славница and others, which brings together with Ancient Greek κλύζω (klúzō, “I lave”), κλύζωει (klúzōei) · πλημμυρεῖ (plēmmureî), ῥέει (rhéei), βρύει (brúei), κλύδων (klúdōn, “surf”), Latin cluō (“I clean”), cloāca (“sewer pipe”). Other etymologies are less likely.

• Otrębski brings up an interesting parallel, the Lithuanian village name Šlavė́nai on the river Šlavė̃ which is identical to Proto-Slavic *slověne.

• Bernstein repeats this etymology: from *slawos (“people, nation, folk”).

• Maher agrees with Trubachev's connection of it to *sluti (“to be known”),[1] on the grounds that *slovo (“word”) is an s-stem, *sloves-, which would have led to an expected form *slovesěni (compare Russian слове́сность (slovésnostʹ).

More at Slavs.

*slověninъ m

1. Slav

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• *němьcь
• *volxъ

• *slověnьskъ (“Slavic”)

• *slovo
• *slava
• *sluti

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), “славянин”, in Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), transl. and suppl. by Oleg Trubachyov, Moscow: Progress
• “Slav”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present. (etymology)
• Oleg Trubachyov (1982), “Из исследований по праславянскому словообразованию: генезис модели на -ěninъ, -*janinъ”, in Этимология 1980, Moscow, page 3
• Sreznevsky, Izmail I. (1912), “словѣнинъ”, in Матеріалы для Словаря древне-русскаго языка по письменнымъ памятникамъ [Materials for the Dictionary of the Old East Slavic Language Based on Written Monuments]‎ (in Russian), volume 3 (Р – Ꙗ и дополненія), Saint Petersburg: Department of Russian Language and Literature of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, column 421
• Stanislav, Jan (1904-1977): Starosloviensky jazyk II: Morfológia, Bratislava 1987

• Ballester, Xaverio (2019), “Slověninъ, o del etnónimo de los eslavos”, in 57 - Lingüística
• Mesiarkin, Adam (2017), “The name of the slavs: etymology and meaning”, in Studia Slavic et Balcania Petropolitana, issue 1, page 3
• Florin Curta (2011), “Sklaviniai and ethnic adjectives: a clarification”, in Byzantion Nea Hellás, volume 30, page 85