What are the most powerful and influential countries?

[bogi]

Slav(v=w) is still used in names I.E Boguslaw,Wadislaw,Slawomir.

As for Poland going to the Elbe. How do you think the Sorbs got there The sorbs are the last remnants of the Slavic Tribes that once made up poland.

[Ned]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

ciao

PRONUNCIATION: chou
INTERJECTION: Used to express greeting or farewell.
ETYMOLOGY: Italian, from dialectal ciau, alteration of Italian (sono vostro) schiavo, (I am your) servant, from Medieval Latin sclavus, slave, servant. See slave.
WORD HISTORY: Ciao first appears in English in 1929 in Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, which is set in northeast Italy during World War I. It is likely that this is where Hemingway learned the word, for ciau in Venetian dialect means “servant, slave,” and, as a casual greeting, “I am your servant.” Ciau corresponds to standard Italian schiavo; both words come from Medieval Latin sclavus, “slave.” A similar development took place with servus, the Classical Latin word for “slave,” in southern Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Poland, where servus is used as a casual greeting like ciao. At the opposite end of the world, in Southeast Asia, one even sees words meaning “slave” or “your slave” that have developed into pronouns of the first person, again to indicate respect and humility