Etymologically
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slay

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English slen, also slan and slayen,[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English slēan (“to strike, beat; to kill”),[2][3][6][5] a strong verb of class VI with the past tense slōg or slōh and the past participle slægen,[2][3][7] from Proto-Germanic *slahaną (“to hit, strike”).[8][2][3] It is cognate with Old Frisian slā, Old Saxon slahan, Dutch slaan, Old High German slahan, German schlagen, Old Norse slá and Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌰𐌷𐌰𐌽 (slahan, “to strike”);[2][3][8][9] the German verb keeps the original sense "to strike".[2][10] Outside Germanic the only relatives are Celtic, such as Middle Irish slacc (“sword”) and slachta (“struck”), and Kroonen sees the word as a word shared only by Germanic and Celtic, whose root may first have been imitative.[8][3][2] Barnhart and Etymonline give the root as Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to strike”),[3][2] but Etymonline also cites Boutkan's view that the evidence points to a northern European substrate word,[2] and Hoad found no recognizable cognates outside Germanic.[11] According to Hoad, the modern form of the infinitive appeared in the 14th century, built on the past participle, and finally replaced slee.[11] The same Germanic base gave slaughter, onslaught, sledge and sleight.[10][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To strike or beat: in Old English, first in the Vespasian Psalter in the OED;[7] to strike so as to kill, to put to death with a weapon, also in Old English, first in the translation of Orosius.[7][13] Barnhart dates the Old English verb to about 725, in Beowulf.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the verb covered a wide range of striking: to stamp coins, forge weapons, strike fire, throw, pitch a tent, and of a snake, to sting.[2][13] The general senses "strike, beat" died out in Middle English (the last are recorded from 1275 to 1513), and only "strike to death" survived.[7][9] Ayto notes that the word was used for "kill" from the earliest Old English times.[10] A figurative use, to overwhelm someone, appears before 1340 in Richard Rolle's Psalter,[7] and Etymonline dates the meaning "overwhelm with delight" to the mid 14th century.[2] Weekley observed that slay had been replaced by kill except in elevated style, though the two were about equally common in the Authorized Version.[14] Collins labels the killing sense archaic or literary,[15] and the slang sense, to make an audience laugh uproariously, is recorded from 1927.[16] In Scotland, Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Shropshire dialect slay also meant to kill by an accident.[17]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English slēan, to strike, to kill, in Beowulf.[3]
  • Old English – to strike or beat (obsolete by 1325).[7]
  • Old English – to strike so as to kill; to kill with a weapon.[7]
  • Old English – to pitch a tent (obsolete by 1275).[7]
  • c. 1200 – Middle English form slan.[3]
  • 1307 – form slayen.[3]
  • before 1340 – figurative, to overwhelm, later especially with delight, in Richard Rolle's Psalter.[7][2]
  • 1927 – slang, to make someone laugh uproariously.[16]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (literary) To kill, especially violently or in battle: The knight slew the giant at the gate.[15][5][7]
  2. To kill an animal, especially for food or as a sacrifice.[5]
  3. (informal) To impress or delight someone greatly, or to make someone laugh uproariously: Her impressions of the teachers slay me.[15][16][7]
  4. (obsolete, Old English–1325) To strike or beat.[15][7][9]

Word family

Usage notes

The past tense is slew and the past participle slain;[9][15] slayed is non-standard,[9][15] and is found mostly with the slang senses.[1] The loom part called a slay or sley, the reed that beats up the weft, has a separate Old English source, slege, from the same base as the verb.[11][2][14]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ 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)
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  13. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
  17. ^ 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)