slash

Etymology

It is perhaps borrowed from Old French esclachier (“to break”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} a variant of esclater (“to break, splinter”),^[3][4][5] from esclat (“splinter”), the source of slat.^[3] Hoad takes it as an aphetic form of an assumed variant of the French verb,^[6] and Merriam-Webster gives the Middle English verb as slaschen.^[8][7] Klein and Skeat analyse the French verb as es-, from Latin ex, and a Germanic imitative base meaning "to crack", comparing Middle High German klac (“cleft, fissure”);^[9][10] Partridge also thinks it ultimately imitative.^[11] The Shorter Oxford calls the English word probably imitative, comparing flash, with the French verb only as a second possibility,^[12] and Weekley thought that in some senses it was an intensive of lash.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cut or wound with the sweep of a sharp weapon: the OED's first record is a single use in the Wycliffite Bible (1382), after which the verb is recorded only from the middle of the 16th century,^[2][13] first as an intransitive verb, to deliver cutting blows, in 1548.^[2][4][5] Barnhart rejects the Wycliffite record: the editors of the Middle English Dictionary read the word there as flascht, so the verb dates from 1548.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The noun, a cutting stroke with a weapon or whip, followed in 1576, and a long deep cut or gash in 1580.^[2][8][5] Fashion gave the noun a vertical slit in a garment that shows a lining of another colour (1615) and the verb the sense of cutting such slits (1698).^[2][5] From the 17th century the verb also meant to whip (1631), to criticize mercilessly (before 1652) and to strike violently or at random (1689).^[2][5][6] In North America it was used from 1821 for clearing land of trees, and the noun for an open tract in a forest (1825) and for the debris left after logging (1841).^[2][5] Reducing prices severely is recorded by 1876 in American newspaper advertisements, according to Etymonline,^[5] and the OED's first record is from 1906.^[2] As the name of the sloping line /, the noun is first recorded in Webster's Third (1961).^[2][5] From 1984 slash, after the written form K/S (Kirk/Spock), named a subgenre of fiction first published in fanzines and now mostly online;^[2] the name comes from the stroke used to link two names.^[14] In recent American student slang slash is spoken between two phrases, standing for the written stroke.^[15]

Timeline

• 1382 – to cut or wound with a weapon, once, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[2]
• 1548 – intransitive, to deliver cutting blows.^[2][4][5]
• 1576 – noun, a cutting stroke.^[2][8]
• 1580 – a long deep cut, a gash.^[2]
• 1615 – a slit in a garment showing the lining.^[2][5]
• 1631 – to whip or lash.^[2]
• 1689 – to strike violently or at random.^[2][5]
• 1821 – to clear land of trees.^[2][5]
• 1825 – an open tract or clearing in a forest.^[2][5]
• 1906 – to cut prices or other amounts severely.^[2]
• 1961 – the punctuation mark /.^[2][5]
• 1984 – a subgenre of fanzine fiction, after K/S.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut with sharp sweeping strokes, as with a sword or knife: Vandals slashed the seats of the bus.^[7][8][2]
2. To make long gashes in something: Someone had slashed all four tyres.^[7][2]
3. To reduce prices, budgets and the like sharply: The shop slashed its prices after Christmas.^[7][2]
4. To lash with a whip.^[7][2]
5. (chiefly US) To criticize harshly.^[7][2]
6. To cut slits in a garment so that the lining shows through.^[7][2]
7. To clear scrub or undergrowth by cutting.^[7][2]

Noun

1. A sharp sweeping stroke, as with a sword or a whip.^[7][8][2]
2. A cut or wound made by such a stroke; a gash.^[7][8][2]
3. An ornamental slit in a garment showing a lining of a contrasting colour.^[7][8][2]
4. The sloping line /, also called an oblique or solidus.^[2][14]
5. A severe reduction; a cut.^[2]
6. (North America) Debris of branches and felled trees left after logging, or a clearing strewn with it.^[2][7]
7. A subgenre of fiction, first in fanzines and now mostly online, named from the stroke that links two characters' names, as in Kirk/Spock.^[2][14]

Word family

• slasher
• backslash
• slash-and-burn
• slash pocket
• slash pine

Related words

• slat
• slish

Usage notes

The slash meaning swampy ground, recorded in America from 1652, has a separate source: the OED calls it of obscure origin, comparing flash and plash,^[2][5] and Merriam-Webster takes it as probably the latter altered under the influence of slush.^[8] The slang slash, an act of urinating (1950), from an older slash, a drink (1614–1783), is of uncertain origin too.^[2][12] In English dialects the verb also meant to trim a hedge, and in Scotland and Ireland to splash or dash liquid.^[16]

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 35 36 37 38 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ 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)