Etymologically
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slander

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈslɑːndə/, /ˈslandə/[1]
  • US: /ˈslændɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sclaundre, also slaundre and sclandre,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman esclaundre and Old French esclandre (“scandalous statement”),[4][5][6][7] an alteration of escandle,[4][8][9][10] from Late Latin scandalum (“cause of offence, stumbling block”),[8][11][12][3] which is from Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον (skándalon, “trap, stumbling block”).[13][12] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from about 1141, already with the senses "slander, calumny" and "bad reputation".[14] The Middle English forms without the first vowel are aphetic.[7][9] Ayto explains the French change as a switching round of the consonants of escandle,[15] while Skeat and the Century Dictionary describe an inserted l.[16][5] The verb is inherited from Middle English sclaundren, borrowed from Old French esclandrer, formed from the noun.[4][5][7] Slander and scandal are therefore doublets: the English word scandal was taken later from the learned French form scandale.[15][12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The uttering or spreading of false reports about a person in order to damage his or her good name: about 1290, in the South English Legendary.[4] Barnhart dates the word to about 1280 in the sense of disgrace or impaired reputation, and the sense of defamation to before 1300.[17][6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also had the sense of the Late Latin scandalum used in the Bible: a stumbling block, a cause of moral lapse (about 1340 to 1592).[4][9] The verb likewise first meant to cause someone to lapse spiritually, from about 1325 to 1563,[4][7] and the Wycliffite Bible renders Mark 9:42 with sclaundre where the King James Version has offend.[5] A further noun sense, the disgrace or shame that falls on someone, ran from 1297 to 1678,[4] and Chaucer and Gower used the word both for malicious talk and for disgrace or ill fame.[18][19] Merriam-Webster notes that slander had become the standard spelling by the 17th century, and that scandal was formed in the 16th century to take over the older religious sense.[13] The spoken character of slander became fixed in law, where it is set against libel, defamation in writing.[13][20][21] Johnson (1755) defined the noun simply as "false invective".[22]

Timeline

  • c. 1280 – disgrace, damaged reputation.[6][17]
  • c. 1290 – the spreading of false reports to defame someone.[4]
  • 1297 – a false or malicious statement; disgrace, shame (obsolete by 1678).[4]
  • c. 1325 – verb, to cause someone to lapse morally (obsolete by 1563).[4]
  • c. 1340 – verb, to defame, speak evil of; noun, a stumbling block (obsolete by 1592).[4]
  • before 1387 – verb, to bring into disgrace (obsolete by 1603).[4]
  • c. 1426 – verb, intransitive, to utter slanders.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (law) defamation by spoken words or another passing form, as opposed to libel: The actor sued the radio host for slander.[11][3][21]
  2. A false and malicious statement that damages a person's reputation.[11][7][3]
  3. The making of such statements; calumny.[3][11][4]
  4. (obsolete, 1297–1678) Disgrace or shame brought on a person.[4][18]

Verb

  1. To damage someone's reputation by false spoken statements; to defame: Her rivals slandered her all through the campaign.[3][11][4]
  2. To utter or spread slander.[11][4]
  3. (obsolete) To bring discredit or disgrace on.[3][4]

Word family

  • slanderer
  • slanderous
  • slanderously
  • slanderousness
  • slanderingly
  • outslander
  • unslandered

Usage notes

In law slander is spoken defamation and libel written defamation;[13][20] in American law the damages for slander, unlike those for libel, must normally be proved by the plaintiff.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  15. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  16. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  17. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  18. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  19. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  20. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  21. ^ a b c Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
  22. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.