slanderous

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sclaundrous,^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English sclaundre + -ous.^[2][3][4][5] The noun slander is from Anglo-Norman esclaundre, Old French esclandre (“scandalous statement”), an alteration of escandle and escandre, from Latin scandalum (“cause of offense, stumbling block”), the source of scandal, from Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον (skándalon, “a trap, a stumbling block”).^[5][6][1] The OED points instead to a conjectured Anglo-Norman *esclandrus, the counterpart of Old French esclandreux, which it dates to 1455;^[6] the Shorter Oxford also derives it from the Old French adjective,^[7] while Etymonline and the Middle English Dictionary only compare it.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Insulting, disrespectful: in the Rolls of Parliament for 1397 a man admits he spoke to his lord "in sclaunderouse wyse in audience of other folk".^[2] The OED's first record is Hoccleve's Letter of Cupid (1402), "a sclaundrous name", in the sense of bad repute,^[6][2] and Etymonline dates the word to about 1400.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Like its base, which could mean both disgrace and false report,^[5] the adjective pointed two ways in Middle and early modern English.^[2][6] In one group of senses it described what brings shame: disgraceful (1402–1586), a source of disgrace to someone (1592–1616) and, in the Julius Caesar of Shakespeare, giving occasion for slander ("divers sland’rous loads").^[6][8][2] A letter of 1554 used it for an offence, in the sense of scandalous.^[6] These have all died out.^[6][3] In the other group it described speech that defames: "sclaundrous wordes" in 1429,^[2][6] and "slawnderows wordys" in Margery Kempe, before 1438.^[2] Lydgate could call a tongue sclandrous,^[2] and the OED has the use for people from about 1521, in a sermon of J. Fisher against Luther.^[6] By 1755 Johnson listed only these two senses, uttering false reproaches and containing them.^[8]

Timeline

• 1397 – insulting, disrespectful, in sclaunderouse wyse.^[2]
• 1402 – of bad repute, disgraceful, in a sclaundrous name (obsolete by 1586).^[6][2]
• c. 1425 – of words, defamatory.^[2] The OED's first record of the sense is from 1429.^[6]
• c. 1521 – of people, given to slander.^[6]
• 1554 – of the nature of a scandal or offence (obsolete).^[6]
• 1592 – forming a source of shame or disgrace to someone (obsolete by 1616).^[6]
• before 1616 – giving occasion for slander, in Shakespeare (obsolete).^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Containing or constituting slander; false and defamatory: She sued over the slanderous remarks made at the meeting.^[9][3][6]
2. Given to uttering slander: a slanderous neighbour.^[3][6][7]
3. (obsolete, 1402–1586) Of bad repute; disgraceful.^[6][7][3]

Word family

• slanderously
• slanderousness

Related words

• slander
• scandal
• scandalous

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press