sleep

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sliːp/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English slepen, inherited from Old English slǣpan (“to be or fall asleep; to lie dormant”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *slēpanan,^[2][3] the source also of Old Saxon slāpan, Dutch slapen, German schlafen and Gothic slēpan.^[2][4] It is from Proto-Indo-European *sleb- (“to be weak, sleep”),^[2][5][3] perhaps connected with *sleg- “to be slack”, the root of slack.^[2] Barnhart compares Lithuanian slōbti “to become weak” and Old Church Slavonic slabŭ “weak”,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Latin lābī (“to slip, slide”).^[6] The noun is Old English slǣp, from the same root.^[2][3] Neither the verb nor the noun has a cognate in the Scandinavian languages.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun, Old English slǣp: about 725, in Beowulf.^[3] The verb, slēpan: before 830.^[3] Word Origins says the word is first recorded around AD 800.^[7]

Semantic evolution

“To rest in the grave” is already Old English,^[2] as is the figurative noun “the repose of death”.^[2] Sleep with, “to have sex with”, was also used by the Anglo-Saxons.^[7] Of a limb, “to be numb”, it is from late Old English.^[2] A period of sleep is from about 1200,^[2][8] and Sleep is personified from the late 14th century, after Latin Somnus and Greek Hypnos.^[2][8] Chaucer advised in Troilus and Criseyde that “it is not good a sleeping hound to wake”, and the modern let sleeping dogs lie is first in Scott's Redgauntlet (1824).^[7] Sleep-walker is from 1747,^[2] sleeping car from 1839 and sleeping bag from 1850.^[3] Put to sleep, to kill a pet painlessly, is from 1884.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 725 – the noun, in Beowulf.^[3]
• before 830 – the verb.^[3]
• c. 1200 – a period of sleep.^[2][8]
• late 14th century – Sleep personified.^[2]
• 1747 – sleep-walker.^[2]
• 1824 – let sleeping dogs lie.^[7]
• 1839 – sleeping car.^[3]
• 1884 – put to sleep.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A natural, regular state of rest in which consciousness is suspended.
2. A period of sleeping.
3. A state like sleep, such as death or hibernation.
4. (informal) Matter that collects in the corners of the eyes during sleep.

Verb

1. To be in the state of sleep.
2. To be inactive, dormant or dead.
3. To have room for sleeping: the cabin sleeps four.
4. To have sex with: sleep with.

Word family

• sleeplike
• sleepful
• outsleep
• oversleep
• undersleep
• sleepwalk
• sleeper
• asleep

Related words

• sleepy
• slack
• lapse
• slumber

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press