Etymologically
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slender

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈslɛndɚ/[1]
  • UK: /ˈslɛndə/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sclendre, later slendre,[2][3][4][5] which the MED, Etymonline, Barnhart and Klein take as borrowed from Anglo-Norman esclendre (“thin, slender”).[2][4][3][5] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from the third quarter of the 12th century.[6] Barnhart and Klein derive the French word from Old Dutch slinder or Middle Dutch slinder of the same meaning,[3][5] and Skeat linked it to slinderen (“to drag, trail along”).[7] The OED, however, calls the origin obscure: an Anglo-Norman source seems most likely, but it found the French form only in Palsgrave (1530), and the Dutch one only in Kilian, who cites the English word beside it.[8] Weekley thought the Dutch word was probably taken from English,[9] while Barnhart, following the FEW, argues that the “scl-” cluster points to a borrowing from French into English.[3] The Oxford Dictionary of English, Hoad and Collins treat it as of unknown origin.[10][11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, not fat or fleshy; thin, lean: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, about 1387–95, describes the Reeve as a sclendre colerik man.[2][3] The OED's first record is from before 1400, in Coer de Lyon.[8]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer used the word seven times, for "slender" but also "weak" and "meagre".[13] From the 15th century it was used of things with little thickness or solidity (1444),[8] and about 1500 it began to denote weakness, or immaturity.[8] The sense "long and thin", of things, dates from the early 16th century (before 1513),[8][4] and the figurative senses "weak, slight, insignificant" from the 1520s and 1530s, especially of arguments with little force or grounds (1531, 1562).[4][8] The sense of small in extent or amount is from 1610.[8] Later use increasingly implied a graceful slimness of form.[8] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "thin; small in circumference compared with the length", and took it from Dutch.[14] In phonetics, slender vowels are narrow or close ones, from 1755;[8] the term is now used chiefly in Irish phonology.[12] In Yorkshire dialect a slender animal was a miserably thin one.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1387–95 – sclendre, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.[2][3]
  • before 1400 – not stout or fleshy, slim.[8]
  • 1444 – of little thickness or solidity.[8]
  • before 1513 – of things, long and thin.[8]
  • 1531 – of arguments, unconvincing.[8]
  • 1559 – verb, to make thin.[8]
  • 1610 – of small extent or amount.[8]
  • 1755 – of vowels, narrow, close.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Gracefully thin; slim in build: a slender young dancer.[12][16][8]
  2. Small in width compared with length or height: the slender stem of a wine glass.[12][8]
  3. Small or inadequate in amount or size: They lived on a slender income.[12][8]
  4. Having little foundation; weak or feeble: a slender hope of rescue.[12][8]
  5. (phonetics) Of a vowel, close and front; now chiefly in Irish phonology.[12][8]

Word family

  • slenderly
  • slenderness
  • slenderize
  • unslender
  • slender loris

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes the near-synonyms: slender suggests an attractive, pleasing thinness, slight adds a hint of frailty, and slim a lithe or delicate thinness.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  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. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House