slack

slack¹ loose, lax

Etymology

The loose sense is inherited from Middle English slak, also slac and slakke,^[2][3] inherited from Old English slæc, also sleac,^[4][5][6] inherited from Proto-Germanic *slakaz.^[5][7][8] Its cognates include Old Saxon slak, Middle Dutch slac, Old High German slah and Old Norse slakr, with modern Dutch slak, Swedish slak and Icelandic slakur.^[4][9][8] Kroonen calls the Germanic word an o-grade adjective from a marginally attested root;^[8] Etymonline gives it as Proto-Indo-European *sleg- (“to be slack, be languid”),^[5] the American Heritage Dictionary and Barnhart write the root with a long vowel.^[10][9] The same root is behind Latin laxus (“loose”), the source of lax,^{[4][11][7][12]} and langueō (“to be faint, weary”), the source of languish and languid;^[11][3] Klein and Merriam-Webster also compare Ancient Greek λήγω (lḗgō, “to leave off, stop”), and Klein and Kroonen λαγαρός (lagarós, “slack, hollow”).^[3][12][8] The noun (before 1325) and the adverb (1392) were formed from the adjective,^[9][5] and so was the verb (1520), which took over some senses of the older slake;^[4][5][13] the OED compares Middle Dutch slacken.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, of people: lazy, slothful, unwilling to make an effort, or careless and remiss in their duty; of movement, slow or gentle.^[6][4] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 725, in Beowulf,^[9] where a prince is said to have been sleac;^[6] the OED's first quotation is from King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, "not tight, loose", is first recorded in Middle English, in the 13th century or about 1300.^[7][5][9] Later senses of weakness and slowness followed: weak or dull in operation (1398), of heat gentle or moderate (1495), and of wind or tide blowing or running with little strength (1670, Milton).^[4] From the early 19th century the adjective was used of trade and work that were not brisk (1813), of dull times in business (1828) and of people with little work (1834).^[4] The noun first meant relief, a cessation of pain or grief, before 1325 in the Cursor Mundi;^[9][2] it was later used of the slack of the tide (1642 in the OED, 1756 in Etymonline),^[4][5] a still stretch of river (1825), the loose part of a rope or sail (1794) and a lull in business (1851).^[4][5][9] The plural slacks, trousers, is recorded from 1824;^[4][9] take up the slack was used figuratively by 1930, and cut someone some slack arose in African American usage in the 1960s.^[5][4] Slack for impudence or cheek (1825) is dialectal and American,^[4][14][15] perhaps short for slack jaw.^[12] The verb meant from 1520 to let something fall off or decline, and in 1530 also to neglect a duty and to loosen;^[4] Etymonline thinks its modern sense, to be idle, is largely a fresh coinage of about 1904, with slacker, and dates slack off by 1911.^[5] Johnson (1755) compared Latin laxus and Welsh in his etymology, and gave "not tense; loose" first.^[16]

Timeline

• Old English – of people, lazy, remiss; of pace, slow.^[4][6][9]
• 13th century – not tight, loose.^[7][9][5]
• before 1325 – noun, relief from pain or grief.^[9][2]
• 1392 – adverb, in a slack manner.^[9]
• 1520 – verb, to let something decline; 1530, to loosen, to neglect.^[4][9]
• 1642 – noun, the slack of the tide.^[4]
• 1670 – of wind or tide, weak.^[4]
• 1794 – noun, the loose part of a rope or sail.^[4][9][5]
• 1824 – slacks, trousers.^[4][9]
• 1825 – noun, impudence (dialect and US).^[4][15]
• 1851 – noun, a lull in business or activity.^[4][9]
• 1898 – slacker, a person who shirks work.^[9]
• 1966 – cut someone some slack.^[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Not tight or taut; loose: The tent ropes had gone slack overnight.
2. Negligent or careless; lacking diligence.
3. Of business or trade, not busy; quiet.
4. Of water, tide or wind, moving slowly or with little force.
5. (phonetics) Lax.

Noun

1. The loose part of a rope, sail or the like.
2. take up the slack: to tighten a rope; figuratively, to make use of spare capacity or cover a shortfall.
3. A period of reduced activity; a lull.
4. A stretch of still water, or the turn of the tide when the current slows.
5. slacks: loose trousers for casual wear.
6. cut someone some slack: to treat someone with leniency or understanding.
7. (dialect and US colloquial) Impudence, cheek.
8. (prosody) An unstressed syllable, as in sprung rhythm.

Verb

1. To make slack; to loosen or slacken.
2. To neglect one's work or duty; often slack off.
3. To reduce in speed or force.

Word family

• slackly
• slackness
• slacken
• slacker
• slacks
• slack water
• slack-jawed
• unslack

slack² hollow, dip

Etymology

The hollow is inherited from Middle English slak, also slake and slac,^[2] borrowed from Old Norse slakki,^{[4][13][12][2]} compare Icelandic slakki and Norwegian slakke.^[4][2] A. H. Smith explains the Old Norse word as an assimilated form of an older one that survives as Danish slank (“a hollow”).^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small shallow valley or hollow in the ground: about 1400, in Rowland and Otuel and in a life of St Anne, where outlaws and thieves walk by a wood "in a slake".^[4][2] The OED's first edition dated this sense 1375.^[18]

Semantic evolution

Before 1400 the word was also used of a hollow in sand- or mud-banks on a shore, in the alliterative Morte Arthure,^[4][2] later also of a damp hollow among sand dunes;^[4][13] a rare sense "pit, hole" is found before 1500.^[4] From 1719 it is recorded for a boggy hollow or morass.^[4][13] In Middle English it appears in surnames and place names,^[2] and it survives in names such as Slack in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, Castle Slack in Cumberland, and Hazelslack and Nettleslack.^[17] Wright found the word in Scotland, Ireland and the northern counties for a hollow in a hillside, a dip in the ground, a glade or a pass between hills.^[14] Pennecuik (1715) mentions a pass called "Cauldstane Slap, or rather Slack" through which droves of cattle were taken into England.^[14] The SOED marks it as now Scottish and northern.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – a small valley or hollow (1375 in the OED's first edition).^[4][2][18]
• before 1400 – a hollow in sand- or mud-banks.^[4][2]
• before 1500 – a pit, a hole (rare, obsolete).^[4]
• 1715 – a pass between hills, in Scotland.^[14]
• 1719 – a boggy hollow, a morass.^[4][13]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (Scotland and northern England) A small shallow valley or hollow; a dip in the ground, or a pass between hills.
2. A damp hollow among sand dunes or in the sandbanks of a shore.
3. (dialect) A boggy hollow; a marsh.

slack³ coal dust

Etymology

The coal dust is inherited from Middle English sleck,^[9][5][7] probably borrowed from Middle Dutch slacke, also slecke,^[9][12][3] which are cognate with Middle Low German slecke (“slag”),^[9][5] perhaps related to slagge (“a splinter flying off metal when it is struck”), the source of slag.^{[9][5][3][12]} Collins takes it from the Middle Low German word.^[19] Hoad and the SOED call the word probably Low German or Dutch in origin,^[7][13] and the OED calls it of doubtful origin, comparing Dutch slak and German Schlacke (“dross of metals”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Small or refuse coal: about 1440, in the Middle English translation of Palladius on husbandry, as sleck.^[4][9][5]

Semantic evolution

The modern spelling slack is first found in Swift's works in 1729,^[9] the date Merriam-Webster gives for the word.^[12] Merriam-Webster describes it as the finest screenings of coal at a mine, often mixed with slate and dirt, also called coom or culm.^[12] In Northamptonshire slack was also the refuse of a blacksmith's shop, and in several Midland and northern counties a verb slack meant to bank down a fire by covering it with slack.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – sleck, small or refuse coal.^[4][9]
• 1729 – the spelling slack, in Swift.^[9][12]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Small pieces and dust of coal left after screening, of poor quality as fuel.