slider

Etymology

It is formed from English slide + -er, an agent noun from the verb.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The OED (revised 2017) takes the sense "playground slide" as formed from either the verb or the noun slide.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who slides, at first a skater: 1530, in Palsgrave's French–English dictionary.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster also dates the word to 1530,^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1520–30.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) gave only "he who slides".^[7] Things that slide, or on which things slide, followed: a beam or plank for sliding heavy loads (1582), in dialect also a sledge; a sliding part in a machine (1681), the holder for objects in a microscope (1703) and a lantern slide (about 1793).^[2][4] In the 19th century the word took in a sliding electrical contact (1872), later a control on electronic equipment, and in rowing one who uses a sliding seat (1880).^[2] In the United States it named the red-bellied terrapin from 1877,^[2][3] and in baseball a fast pitch that breaks away from its path from 1936.^[2][3] An ice cream served between two wafers was a slider by 1915;^[3] Etymonline quotes Ayto that anyone who has felt the ice cream slipping out will understand the name.^[3] Green's Dictionary of Slang records this sense in Ireland and links it with Irish sliodarnach (“slithering, sliding”).^[8] From the same image of a filling held loosely between two layers, a small hamburger came to be a slider in the United States:^[3][8] Popik finds it on a Chicago slang list of 1974 and suggests that it was Navy slang, perhaps from the 1940s or 1950s, for a greasy burger that slid down easily; the White Castle chain trademarked the spelling Slyder.^[9] In Ireland, Pembrokeshire and Cornwall dialect a verb slider meant to slide or slip, and in Scotland and northern England the noun could mean a sledge or a skate.^[10]

Timeline

• 1530 – one who slides, a skater.^[2][3]
• 1582 – a beam or plank on which heavy things are slid.^[2]
• 1681 – a sliding part in a mechanism.^[2]
• 1870 – a slide for children to play on.^[2]
• 1872 – a sliding electrical contact.^[2]
• 1877 – the red-bellied terrapin, in the United States.^[2][3]
• 1915 – an ice cream between two wafers.^[3]
• 1936 – in baseball, a pitch that breaks sideways.^[2][3]
• 1974 – a small hamburger, on a Chicago slang list.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or thing that slides.^[11][5][2]
2. A part of a device that slides, especially a knob or contact moved along a track to adjust a setting: Move the volume slider to the left.^[2][5]
3. (baseball) A fast pitch that breaks sideways as it reaches the batter.^[11][2]
4. A small hamburger.^[11][8]
5. Any of several North American freshwater turtles, such as the red-eared slider.^[5][2]

Related words

• slide

Usage notes

Middle English had an unrelated adjective slider (“slippery”), from slidor, used twice by Chaucer.^[12][13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
9. ^ a b Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Slider or Slyder – mini-hamburger", 14 February 2008
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme