slant

Etymology

The verb is a later variant of slent,^[2][3][4] inherited from Middle English slenten (“to slip, glide or strike obliquely”),^[5][3][4][6] which the OED derives borrowed from Old Norse *slenta, comparing Norwegian slenta, older Danish slente and Swedish slinta (“to slip, slide”).^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart call the Scandinavian origin likely but not certain,^[4][3][6] and Hoad finds the link with the dialect word obscure.^[7] The MED compares Old Norse sletta (“to slap”), from Proto-Norse *slantjan,^[5] and Barnhart traces the Swedish verb to Proto-Germanic *slintaną and further to Proto-Indo-European *sleid- (“to slip”), the root of slide.^[3][4] The vowel a probably comes from aslant, on the slant,^[2][8][9] and the adverb and adjective slant are a shortening of that word.^{[2][8][10][11][12]} Skeat connected the adjective with dialectal slant (“slippery”) in Swedish.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adverb, slantwise, obliquely: 1495, in the printed translation of Bartholomaeus's encyclopedia by Trevisa.^[2] The verb is first recorded in 1521, meaning to strike obliquely on or against something, in a sermon by John Fisher against Luther.^[2][3][10] Its Middle English source slenten is recorded from about 1300, of a blow or weapon glancing or falling obliquely.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The verb moved from striking at an angle to lying or running at an angle: "to slope" is recorded from 1698,^[2][3] and of light or shadow falling obliquely from 1795, in Cowper.^[2] The noun followed, first for the slope of a hill or piece of ground (1655),^[2][4][10] and then for any oblique line, course or surface.^[2] On the slant, at an angle, is recorded from 1817,^[2] though Middle English already had on slent in the same sense.^[3][2] Figuratively the verb meant to lean or incline towards something from 1850, in Lowell,^[2] and the noun came to mean a way of looking at something, a mental bias, from 1905.^[4] From 1939, first in American use, to slant a news story was to give it a bias.^[2] In 19th-century slang a slant was a chance or opportunity,^[2][14] perhaps from the sailors' word for a favourable wind;^[14] in Shetland it meant an occasional chance, as of a dry spell between showers.^[15] The derogatory slang use for an East Asian person is recorded from 1943, from earlier slant-eyes (1929).^[4][14]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – Middle English slenten, to slip sideways or strike obliquely.^[3][4]
• 1495 – adverb, slantwise, obliquely.^[2]
• 1521 – verb, to strike obliquely against something.^[2][3]
• 1655 – noun, the slope of a hill or piece of ground.^[2][10]
• 1698 – verb, to slope, to lie at an angle.^[2][3]
• 1776 – adjective, sloping, oblique.^[2]
• 1817 – on the slant, at an angle.^[2]
• 1837 – slang, a chance or opportunity.^[2]
• 1905 – a point of view, a bias.^[4]
• 1939 – verb, to give news or writing a bias.^[2]
• 1943 – derogatory slang for an East Asian person.^[4]
• 1962 – typography, an oblique stroke, a solidus.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To slope or lie at an angle; to incline away from the horizontal or the vertical: The attic ceiling slants down to the eaves.^[16][10][2]
2. To set or cut something at an angle; to make it slope.^[10][2]
3. To present news or information with a bias, to suit a particular audience or view.^[16][10][2]
4. Of opinions, to lean or be biased towards something.^[16][2]
5. To strike something obliquely; to glance off it (now rare).^[10][8]

Noun

1. A sloping line, direction or surface; a slope: She wore her beret at a slant.^[16][10][2]
2. A point of view, or a way of looking at something: a fresh slant on an old problem.^[16][10]
3. A bias in a report or article.^[16][2]
4. A solidus or oblique stroke (/).^[16][2]
5. on the slant or on a slant: at an angle, sloping.^[16][2]
6. (offensive slang) An East Asian person.^[4][14]

Adjective

1. Oblique or sloping.^[16][10][2]

Word family

• slantingly
• slantways
• slantwise
• slanty
• slant-eyed
• slant height
• slant rhyme

Related words

• aslant
• slide

Usage notes

Sailors' slant, a slight breeze or a spell of wind (1823), has a separate source: it is a later form of the obsolete slent, a splash or sprinkling, which the OED derives from Old Norse.^[2][8][10]

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 n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c 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)
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins