slattern

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][3][4][5] The revised OED takes it as perhaps from English from slattering (“slovenly”), contracted, although that adjective is first attested later, and so thinks the word was probably an adjective first.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary of English, Collins and Hoad agree in relating it to slattering, the present participle of dialectal slatter (“to spill, slop”),^[6][7][8][9] which Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English call a frequentative of slat¹ (“to strike”),^[9][7] perhaps Scandinavian in origin, compare Old Norse sletta (“to slap”).^[9][8][10] Weekley cites "a dirty slattering woman" from Ray, 1674.^[11] Barnhart and Etymonline instead think it probably related to Low German Slattje, Dutch slodder and dialectal Swedish slåta,^[4][3] Etymonline adding an intrusive -n as perhaps in bittern and wyvern.^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has a further proposal, a modification of German schlottern (“to hang loosely, waddle, slouch”) taken as a noun.^[12] Johnson had pointed to Swedish slaetti.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

An untidy or slovenly woman: about 1640, in the single sheet Worst is Past,^[2] and 1639, as slaterne, in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[4][12] Etymonline gives the 1630s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was about habits rather than morals: a woman careless of her appearance or housekeeping, and occasionally a man.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a woman negligent, not elegant or nice", and quoted Addison's remark that "a gossip in politicks is a slattern in her family".^[13] As an adjective it is recorded from 1680, of people, and 1683, of things;^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it 1684.^[12] The verb, from 1747, in Chesterfield, first meant to fritter away time or opportunity, a use now obsolete;^[2][12] its later meaning is of a woman behaving in a slovenly way.^[2] Only from 1899 does the OED have the derogatory sense of a disreputable or promiscuous woman, for which it compares slut.^[2][12] Collins now labels the word old-fashioned.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1640 – an untidy or slovenly woman.^[2] Barnhart has slaterne in 1639.^[4]
• 1680 – adjective, of a person, slovenly.^[2]
• 1683 – adjective, of a thing or condition, untidy, careless.^[2]
• 1747 – verb, to fritter away (obsolete by 1884).^[2]
• 1851 – verb, of a woman, to behave in a slovenly way.^[2]
• 1899 – a disreputable or promiscuous woman.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (old-fashioned, derogatory) An untidy or slovenly woman, careless of her looks or her house; less often, any person of such habits: The landlord called her a slattern and refused to mend the stove.^{[8][2][12][5]}
2. (derogatory) A disreputable or promiscuous woman; a slut or prostitute.^[2][12]

Adjective

1. Slovenly; untidy or dirty.^[12][2][5]

Verb

1. To act or move in a slovenly manner.^[12][2]
2. (obsolete, 1747–1884) To fritter away; to waste time or chances through carelessness.^[2][12][5]

Word family

• slatternly
• slatternliness

Related words

• slattering
• slatter
• slat
• slut

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ 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
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ 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.