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sleigh [sleigh 词源字典]: sleigh: see sledge
[sleigh etymology, sleigh origin, 英语词源]
sleuth: sleuth: [12] Sleuth originally meant ‘track, trail’ (‘John of Lorn perceived the hound had lost the sleuth’, John Barbour, The Bruce 1375). It was borrowed from Old Norse slóth ‘track, trail’, which was probably also the ultimate source of English slot ‘trail of an animal’ [16]. In the 14th century the compound sleuth-hound ‘bloodhound for tracking fugitives’ was coined. This was later shortened back to sleuth, and applied in 19th-century America to a ‘detective’.
=> slot
slice: slice: [14] Slice comes from Old French esclice ‘splinter’, a derivative of the verb esclicier ‘reduce to splinters, shatter’. This in turn was acquired from Frankish *slītjan, a descendant of prehistoric Germanic *slītan ‘slit’ (source of English slit and possibly of slat and slate). English originally took over the word’s French meaning, but this had died out by the end of the 16th century. The modern sense ‘piece cut from something’ is first recorded in the early 15th century.
=> slit
slick: slick: see sleek
slide: slide: [OE] Slide comes from a prehistoric Germanic *slīd- ‘slide, slip’, which also produced English sled, sledge, sleigh, and slither [OE]. Its ultimate source was the Indo-European base *slei- or *lei-, a prolific source of words for ‘slide’. A version with -dh- on the end lies behind slide, and is also responsible for Greek olisthánein, Lithuanian slysti, Latvian slīdēt, and probably Welsh llithro ‘slide’. A version suffixed -b- produced English slip, and one ending in -g- has spread throughout the Slavic languages, giving Russian skol’zit’, Czech klouznouti, etc, all meaning ‘slide’.
=> sled, sledge, sleigh, slither
slight: slight: [13] The ancestral sense of slight is ‘level, even’. It goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *slekhtaz, a word of unknown origin which had that meaning, but whose descendants have diversified semantically beyond all recognition (German schlecht and Dutch slecht, for instance, now mean ‘bad’, having arrived there by way of ‘level, smooth’ and ‘simple, ordinary’). ‘Smooth’ was the original meaning of English slight (Miles Coverdale, in his 1535 translation of the Bible, recorded how David ‘chose five slight stones out of the river’ to confront Goliath with (1 Samuel 17:40), where the Authorized Version of 1611 has ‘smooth stones’), and it survived dialectally into the 20th century.

By the 14th century, however, it was evolving into ‘slim’, and this eventually became, in the early 16th century, ‘small in amount’. English acquired the adjective from Old Norse sléttr ‘smooth’, and Old Norse was also the original source of a verb slight [13], meaning ‘make level or smooth’. This died out in the 17th century, however, and the modern verb slight ‘disdain, snub’, first recorded at the end of the 16th century, is derived from the adjective, in the sense ‘of little importance’.

The noun comes from the verb.
slim: slim: [17] Slim is now quite an upbeat word, but that is a comparatively new departure, for historically it has been neutral if not downright derogatory. It was borrowed from Dutch slim ‘small, inferior’, which went back via Middle Dutch slim ‘slanting, bad’ to a prehistoric Germanic *slimbaz ‘oblique, crooked’ (source also of German schlimm ‘bad’). It may be distantly related to Latvian slīps ‘crooked, steep’.
slime: slime: [OE] Along with its relatives German schleim, Dutch slijm, and Danish slim, slime comes from a prehistoric Germanic slīm-. This probably has connections with English lime ‘calcium’ and Latin līmus ‘mud’.
sling: sling: English has at least two distinct words sling, maybe more – the picture is far from clear. The first to appear was the verb, ‘throw’ [13]. This was probably borrowed from Old Norse slyngva, but as it originally meant specifically ‘throw with a sling’ there is clearly some connection with the noun sling ‘strap for throwing stones’ [13], whose immediate source was perhaps Middle Low German slinge. Sling ‘loop or strap for holding things’ [14] may be the same word, although there is no conclusive proof for this. Sling ‘spirit-based drink’ [18] first came on the scene in America, but its origins are unknown.
slip: slip: There are three separate words slip in English. The verb [13] was probably borrowed from Middle Low German slippen, a product of the prehistoric Germanic base *slip-. This in turn went back to Indo-European *sleib- (source also of English lubricate [17]), a variant of the base which gave English slide. Slippery [16] was based on an earlier and now defunct slipper ‘slippery’, which also goes back to Germanic *slip-.

It may have been coined by the Bible translator Miles Coverdale, who used it in Psalm 34:6: ‘Let their way be dark and slippery’. It is thought that he modelled it on German schlipfferig ‘slippery’, used in the same passage by Martin Luther in his translation of the Bible. Slipper ‘soft shoe’ [15] was originally a shoe ‘slipped’ on to the foot; and someone who is slipshod [16] is etymologically wearing ‘loose shoes’. Slip ‘thinned clay’ [OE] is descended from Old English slypa ‘slime’, and may be related to slop [14].

One of its earlier meanings was ‘dung’, which is fossilized in the second element of cowslip. Slip ‘strip, piece’ [15], as in a ‘slip of paper’, was probably borrowed from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch slippe ‘cut, slit, strip’.
=> lubricate, slide; cowslip, slop
slit: slit: [13] Slit is not recorded in Old English, but it is assumed to have existed, as *slittan (its first cousin slītan ‘slit’ survived into the 20th century in Scottish English as slite). It goes back ultimately to the same Germanic base that produced English slice and possibly also slash, slat and slate.
=> slice
sloe: sloe: [OE] Etymologically, the sloe is probably the ‘blue-black’ fruit. The word comes, along with its relatives German schlehe, Dutch slee, Swedish slå, and Danish slaa, from a prehistoric Germanic *slaikhwōn, which has been linked with Latin līvēre ‘be blue-black’ (source of English livid [17]). Another close relative is Serbo-Croat shljiva ‘plum’, whose derivative shljivovica ‘plum brandy’ has given English slivovitz [19].
=> livid, slivovitz
slogan: slogan: [16] Slogan is a Gaelic contribution to English. It comes from sluaghghairm ‘war-cry’, a compound formed from sluagh ‘army’ and ghairm ‘shout’. English at first used it in its original Gaelic sense, and the metaphorical ‘catchphrase’ did not emerge until the 18th century.
slop: slop: see slip
slope: slope: [15] The noun slope did not emerge until the 17th century. Originally it was an adverb, short for the now defunct aslope. This is generally supposed to go back to an unrecorded Old English *āslopean, an adverbial use of the past participle of āslūpan ‘slip away’. Such a scenario would appear to fit in well with the colloquial slope off ‘leave’, but in fact this usage did not emerge until the early 19th century, in America.
slow: slow: [OE] The etymological notion underlying slow is ‘dullness, sluggishness’; ‘lack of speed’ is a secondary development. The word goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *slæwaz, which also produced Swedish slö and Danish sløv ‘dull, blunt’. The original idea of ‘sluggishness’ is better preserved in the derivative sloth [12] (etymologically ‘slow-ness’).
=> sloth
slug: slug: English has at least two, possibly four distinct words slug. The oldest, ‘shell-less mollusc’ [15], originally meant ‘slow or lazy person’. It was not applied to the slow-moving animal until the 18th century. It was probably a borrowing from a Scandinavian source (Norwegian has a dialectal slugg ‘large heavy body’). A similar ancestor, such as Swedish dialect slogga ‘be lazy’, may lie behind the now obsolete English verb slug ‘be lazy’, from which were derived sluggard [14] and sluggish [14]. Slug ‘bullet’ [17] is of uncertain origin.

It may have come from slug ‘mollusc’, in allusion to the shape of the animal, but that suggestion depends on the supposition that slug was being used for the mollusc at least a hundred years before our earliest written record of it. Slug ‘swig of drink’ [18] may be the same word, but it has also been speculated that it comes from Irish Gaelic slog ‘swallow’. Slug ‘hit’ [19] and the related slog [19] probably go back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *slakh-, *slag-, *slōg- ‘hit’ (source of English slaughter, slay, etc).
=> slog
sluice: sluice: [14] A sluice is etymologically a device for ‘excluding’ water. The word comes via Old French escluse from Gallo-Roman *exclūsa, a noun use of the feminine past participle of Latin exclūdere ‘shut out’ (source of English exclude [14]). This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and claudere ‘shut’ (source of English close).
=> close, exclude
slush: slush: [17] Like the very similar (and perhaps ultimately identical) slosh [19] and sludge [17], slush probably originated in imitation of the sound of squelching or splashing. The similarity of early modern Danish slus ‘sleet, mud’ and Norwegian slusk ‘slushy’ suggests the possibility of a Scandinavian borrowing rather than a native formation. Slush fund [19] comes from the use of slush for ‘grease that is a byproduct of cooking in a ship’s galley’, the allusion being to the ‘greasing’ of people’s palms with money.
sly: sly: [12] Etymologically, sly means ‘able to hit’. It was borrowed from Old Norse slǣgr ‘clever, cunning’, which went back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *slakh-, *slag-, *slōg- ‘hit’ (source also of English slaughter, slay, etc). The word’s original approbatory connotations of ‘cleverness’ or ‘skill’ survived into the 20th century in northern dialects, but elsewhere they were soon ousted by the notion of ‘underhandedness’. More neutral associations linger on in sleight ‘dexterity’ [13] (as in ‘sleight of hand’), which was acquired from an Old Norse derivative of slǣgr.
=> slaughter, slay, sleight