slag

slag¹ smelting waste

Etymology

The smelting waste is borrowed from Middle Low German slagge,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} which Etymonline and Klein gloss as the splinter that flies off when metal is struck.^[3][8] The OED gives two explanations: a noun formed on slān (“to forge, work metal”), a special use of that verb in the sense "to strike" (the source of slay), first for the waste of forging rather than smelting; or a word from the same base as a Middle Low German noun for rainy or dirty weather.^[2] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English derive it, perhaps, from slagen (“to strike”), with reference to the fragments produced by hammering.^[9][7][10] Barnhart relates it to German Schlacke (“slag”) and Old High German slahan (“to strike”),^[4][11] and the OED takes the German word and Swedish slagg from the Middle Low German one.^[2] Skeat derived it from the Swedish word, explaining it as what flows over when metal is fused,^[12] and Weekley called it a Low German form of slack.^[13] The OED compares Old English slægu, found in Mercian glossaries for a word for litharge, which was formed separately.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A piece of stony waste produced in smelting or refining metal: 1552, in a document printed in Hore's History of Wexford.^[2][11][6] Etymonline dates the word to the 1550s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The mass noun, the stony waste separated from metal by the action of a flux, is recorded from 1612, in Sturtevant's Metallica.^[2] John Ray used it in 1673 for lava in rough lumps,^[2] and it also meant impure or broken coal, coal waste, from 1695.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the dross or recrement of metal", quoting Boyle.^[14] The verb followed in the 19th century: of a furnace lining, to turn into slag or become clogged with it, from 1811, and to remove impurities from metal as slag, from 1882.^[2][7] In Shropshire slag-pigs were small pigs of lead of poorer quality, and in Northumberland slag was a thin bed of coal mixed with lime and pyrites.^[15]

Timeline

• 1552 – a piece of waste from smelting or refining metal.^[2][11]
• 1612 – the stony waste separated from metals in smelting.^[2]
• 1673 – lava in rough lumps.^[2]
• 1695 – impure coal; coal waste.^[2]
• 1811 – verb, to turn into slag or become clogged with it.^[2]
• 1882 – verb, to remove impurities from metal as slag.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The glassy or stony waste separated from metal during smelting or refining; dross: The workers raked the slag off the molten iron.^[16][6][2]
2. Rough fragments of lava and cinders from a volcano; scoria.^[16][2]
3. Mineral waste from coal mining, such as shale, clay and coal dust.^[16][2]

Verb

1. To turn into slag, or to become clogged with slag.^[6][2][7]
2. To remove impurities from metal as slag.^[6][2][7]

Word family

• slaggy
• slagless
• slag heap

slag² worthless person; insult

Etymology

The insult first appears in 18th-century cant as a word for a coward, "a slack-mettled fellow, one not ready to resent an affront".^[17][2] Its origin is disputed.^[2][17][6] Green's Dictionary of Slang derives it from slack-mettled (“lacking spirit”),^[17] and Merriam-Webster takes the modern noun from this earlier cant word for a coward or worthless person.^[6] Dictionary.com thinks it perhaps the same word as the smelting waste,^[18] and the OED, Etymonline and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins treat it as a figurative use of that word, refuse applied to a person.^[2][3][19] The verb, to criticize or insult, comes from this noun according to Merriam-Webster, Green's Dictionary of Slang and Etymonline,^[6][17][3] while the OED lists it under the verb of the smelting word and compares an earlier sense of slang.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A coward: about 1786, in manuscript additions to Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, and in print in its second edition of 1788.^[17][2] Etymonline dates it to 1788.^[3]

Semantic evolution

After the later editions of Grose (1796, 1811, 1823) the word is next found in the 20th century, as a general term of contempt.^[17] The OED records it from 1827 for the lowest or worst of a group, and in prison and police slang from 1934 for a petty criminal or rough person.^[2][17] London police slang of 1970 used it for the aimless riff-raff of society: drunks, tramps, beatniks and hippies.^[17] The sense "rubbish, nonsense" is recorded from 1948,^[2][17] and the adjective "second-rate" from 1962.^[17] The sense now dominant, a promiscuous woman, or a prostitute, appears in 1958 in Frank Norman's Bang to Rights,^[2][17][6] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins notes that it developed only in the mid-20th century.^[19] The verb, usually slag off, is recorded from 1958 in the OED,^[2] in 1965 in Green's Dictionary of Slang,^[17] and in 1971 in Merriam-Webster and Etymonline;^[6][3] the intransitive slag on follows in 1985.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1786 – a coward, a spiritless fellow.^[17] The OED's first record is the 1788 edition of Grose.^[2][3]
• 1827 – the lowest or worst of a group.^[2]
• 1934 – a rough person; a petty criminal.^[2][17]
• 1948 – rubbish, nonsense.^[2][17]
• 1958 – a promiscuous woman; a prostitute.^[2][17][6]
• 1958 – verb, to criticize harshly or insult.^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang dates it to 1965, Merriam-Webster to 1971.^[17][6]
• 1962 – adjective, second-rate, worthless.^[17]
• 1985 – slag on, to disparage.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly British, slang, offensive) A woman regarded as promiscuous or coarse; also, a prostitute.^{[16][6][2][17]}
2. (British, slang) A worthless or contemptible person.^[2][17]
3. (British, slang) A petty criminal or rough person.^[2][17]

Verb

1. (chiefly British, slang) To criticize harshly or insult, usually slag off: He spent the whole interview slagging off his old bandmates.^{[16][6][2][17]}