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sledge

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Etymology and origin of the English word sledge

Pronunciation

sledge1 heavy hammer

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1000
Inherited from
Old English slecg via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *slagjǭ

Etymology

The hammer is inherited from Middle English slegge, also sleg,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English slecg (“hammer, mallet”),[5][6][7][3] from Proto-Germanic *slagjǭ,[6][8][3] formed from the stem of the verb that gave slay, Old English slēan (“to strike”).[5][3][4][9] Etymonline also relates it to slege (“beating, blow, stroke”).[6] It is cognate with Middle Dutch slegge and modern Dutch slegge, Old Norse sleggja and Swedish slägga.[5][3][9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large heavy hammer, especially a blacksmith's, usually swung with both hands: in Old English,[5][3] where it glosses Latin malleus.[7] In Middle English the form slegge is recorded from 1336, in naval accounts.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) still defined sledge as a large heavy hammer, quoting Spenser.[10] From 1495 the compound sledgehammer, which Etymonline and Weekley call pleonastic, gradually took over this sense,[5][6][11] and Ayto notes that sledge was once a word in its own right.[12] A sledge was also thrown as an athletic exercise, from 1578,[5] and "throwing the sledge" was still a pastime in Scotland in 1801.[13] The verb, to use a sledgehammer, is recorded from 1654.[5][3] In the 1970s Australian cricketers began sledging, taunting the opposing batsman to break his concentration;[14][12] the OED records the noun from 1977, derives it from this sledge, and takes the verb (1979) as a back-formation from it.[5] Ayto and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins connect it with the crudeness of a sledgehammer.[12][14]

Timeline

  • before 1000 – a large heavy hammer.[5][3]
  • 1336 – Middle English slegge, in naval accounts.[2][3]
  • 1495 – the compound sledgehammer.[5]
  • 1578 – a hammer thrown as an athletic exercise.[5]
  • 1654 – verb, to use a sledgehammer.[5][3]
  • 1816 – verb, to break or drive in with a sledgehammer.[5]
  • 1977 – sledging, taunting an opposing batsman in cricket.[5]
  • 1979 – verb, to taunt an opposing player.[5]
  • 1989 – noun, a taunting remark made to a player.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sledgehammer.[4][15][5]
  2. (cricket) A taunting remark made to an opposing player, especially a batsman, to break their concentration.[5]

Verb

  1. To strike or break with a sledgehammer: The crew sledged the old wall down in an afternoon.[4][5][15]
  2. (cricket) To taunt or insult an opposing player, especially a batsman, to upset their concentration.[5][15]

Word family

  • sledgehammer
  • sledging

sledge2 sled, sleigh

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1617 F. Moryson, Itinerary
Borrowed from
Dutch sleedse

Etymology

The vehicle is borrowed from Dutch sleedse, also sleeds, a dialect word,[3][4][16][6][11] which the OED, Hoad and Ayto give as the Middle Dutch form sleedse.[5][9][12][17] The OED notes that the Dutch forms belong to Friesland and North Holland and may be of Frisian origin.[5][6][11] It is related to slede and slee,[3][5] from sledde;[16][4] the American Heritage Dictionary takes the dialect word as perhaps a diminutive of slede.[16] Ayto traces sled and sleigh, the other words from this family, to the same Germanic base Proto-Germanic *slid- (“slide”), the source of slide.[12][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A carriage on runners instead of wheels, for travel over snow or ice: 1617, in F. Moryson's Itinerary.[5][3][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s, and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the late 16th century.[6][15][17]

Semantic evolution

From 1651 a sledge was also the frame on which condemned people were dragged to execution,[5] and since 1684 a vehicle on runners for heavy goods over snow, ice or rough ground.[5] In Northumberland and Durham mines it was a wooden frame on which the corves were drawn before wheels and rails came in.[13] Later technical senses are a heavy travelling frame in rope-making (1794) and the skid of an aeroplane (1910).[5] The verb is recorded from 1708 in a coal-mining book,[5][4][3] and for travelling by sledge from 1853, in E. K. Kane's account of the United States Grinnell Expedition.[5] Etymonline notes that the Century Dictionary (1895) did not find the word used in the United States for this vehicle,[6] and Collins gives sled as the usual American and Canadian word.[18]

Timeline

  • 1617 – a carriage on runners for snow or ice.[5][3][4]
  • 1651 – a frame for taking condemned people to execution.[5]
  • 1684 – a vehicle on runners for heavy goods.[5]
  • 1708 – verb, in coal mining.[5][3][4]
  • 1794 – in rope-making, a weighted travelling frame for the yarns.[5]
  • 1853 – verb, to travel by sledge.[5]
  • 1864 – verb, to carry on a sledge.[5]
  • 1910 – the skid of an aeroplane.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A vehicle on runners, drawn by horses or dogs, for carrying people or loads over snow or ice; a sleigh.[18][4][5]
  2. (chiefly British) A light frame on runners for sliding over snow; a sled or toboggan.[18][15]
  3. (New Zealand) A farm vehicle on runners for rough or muddy ground.[18]
  4. In rope-making, a weighted frame that moves along to keep the yarns taut.[4][5]

Verb

  1. To travel by sledge, or to carry something on a sledge: They sledged the supplies across the frozen lake.[18][4][5]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ 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 39 40 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  8. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  13. ^ a b 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)
  14. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ 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
  16. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  17. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Sledge.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/sledge. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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