sleet

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English slete, also slet,^[2][3][4] probably inherited from Old English *slēte, an unrecorded Anglian form,^[5][2][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ.^[1] Barnhart and Etymonline give the Germanic form as *slautjan-,^[4][3][6] and Barnhart takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *sleud-.^[4] It is related to Middle High German slōz, slōze (“hailstone”) (modern German Schlosse) and Middle Low German slōten (“hail”) (a plural),^{[5][4][8][6][9]} and Barnhart adds slōt (“mud, puddle”), Middle Dutch sloot (“ditch”) and Old Frisian slāt (“ditch”).^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares Old Norse slota (“to hang down”) and Middle English sloor (“mud”), the source of slur.^[10] The Scandinavian words for sleet, Danish slud, Swedish sludd and Icelandic slydda, are compared by Etymonline and Klein,^[3][8][11] but the OED finds it hard to connect them with the English word by their sounds,^[5] and Skeat thought the dialect form Norwegian sletta unrelated.^[12] Johnson had suggested a Danish origin.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Snow partly thawed as it falls, mixed with rain: about 1300, in The Land of Cokayne,^[5][3] before 1300 in Barnhart.^[4] The Middle English Dictionary's first record is a gloss in Walter of Bibbesworth's treatise, before 1325.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb, "it sleets", is recorded nearly as early as the noun, from about 1325.^[5][2][3] Chaucer used the noun twice.^[14] In Middle English place names the word may have meant mud or slush,^[2] and a Middle English slet for nasal mucus (before 1450), probably from the same word, matches a Westmorland and Yorkshire dialect sleet for the slime from the nostrils of a sick animal.^[2][15] Johnson (1755) described sleet as small smooth hail or snow falling in single particles rather than flakes.^[13] In the United States the word is used especially for fine, wind-driven pellets of frozen rain,^[3][16] and also for the coat of ice that forms when rain freezes on cold surfaces.^[16][10]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – snow partly thawed as it falls, usually with rain.^[5][3]
• c. 1325 – verb, it sleets.^[5][2]
• 1596 – verb, to fall as or like sleet.^[5]
• 1728 – a storm or shower of sleet (rare).^[5]
• 1786 – verb, transitive, to pour or cast down like sleet.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Partly melted falling snow, or snow and rain falling together.^[16][10][5]
2. (chiefly US) Frozen or partly frozen rain falling as small icy pellets.^[16][10][3]
3. (chiefly US) A thin coat of ice formed when sleet or rain freezes on cold surfaces; glaze.^[16][10]

Verb

1. To fall as sleet: It sleeted all the way home.^[16][10][5]

Word family

• sleety

Related words

• slur

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
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.
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins