Etymologically
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slash

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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)