slime

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English slime, also slyme and slim,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English slīm (“slime, mud, mire”),^[5][2][6][7] inherited from Proto-Germanic *slīmą,^{[8][9][10][11]} the source also of Old Norse slím, Old Frisian slīm, Middle Dutch slijm, Middle Low German slīm, Middle High German slīm, Dutch slijm (“slime, phlegm”) and German Schleim (“slime, mucus”).^{[12][13][2][11]} The OED takes the stem as probably related to that of Latin līmus (“mud, slime”),^[12][13][14] and Etymonline and Barnhart think it probably related to Old English līm (“birdlime, sticky substance”), the source of lime.^[11][2] Etymonline and Klein trace it to Proto-Indo-European *(s)lei- (“slimy, sticky, slippery”),^[11][4] and Kroonen to a European form Proto-Indo-European *sleh₁i-mo-;^[8] cognates outside Germanic include Ancient Greek λείμαξ (leímax, “snail, slug”) and λίμνη (límnē, “marsh, pool, lake”).^{[4][11][8][15]} The verb, from 1628, comes from the noun.^[12][3][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Soft, sticky mud; ooze: in Old English, where slīm glosses Latin līmus in the vocabularies,^[12][5] and the same sense is recorded in Middle English slyme about 1300.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From mud the word passed to any thick, viscous fluid of animal or vegetable origin, such as mucus, recorded before 1225 in the Ancrene Riwle.^[12] It was used in contempt of the human body and of people from about 1315,^[12] as an insult to a person from the mid-15th century,^[11] and since 1585 of anything morally filthy or disgusting.^[12][11] English Bibles of 1530 used it for bitumen, as in the building of the tower of Babel, where Johnson quotes "slime for mortar".^[12][16] Miners applied it from 1758 to finely crushed ore mixed with water, a use that the dialects of Northumberland, Derbyshire and Cornwall kept.^[12][17] The verb, to cover with slime, appears in 1628,^[12][3][11] and by 1842 it could also mean to become slimy or to crawl in a slimy way.^[12][11] In slang the noun meant semen from the late 17th century and, in Australia, flattery, and it has also been applied to an extremely unpleasant person.^[18]

Timeline

• before 1000 – Old English slīm, soft mud.^[2][12]
• before 1225 – a viscous fluid of animal or vegetable origin.^[12]
• c. 1300 – Middle English slyme, soft sticky mud.^[2]
• c. 1315 – applied with contempt to the human body or to people.^[12]
• 1530 – applied to bitumen.^[12]
• 1585 – something morally filthy.^[12]
• 1628 – verb, to cover with slime.^[12][3]
• 1723 – verb, to scrape slimy matter from fish or skins.^[12]
• 1758 – in mining, finely crushed ore in the form of mud.^[12]
• 1842 – verb, to make one's way slimily; to become slimy.^[12][11]
• 1880 – slime mould, a kind of fungus.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Soft, thin, sticky mud or filth: The bottom of the old canal was thick with slime.^[19][3][12]
2. Any thick, slippery fluid, especially an unpleasant or harmful one.^[19][12]
3. A mucous substance given off by animals such as slugs, snails and fish.^[19][3]
4. In mining, ore crushed so finely that it forms a mud with water.^[3][12]
5. (slang) A contemptible or extremely unpleasant person.^[18][11]

Verb

1. To smear or cover with slime.^[19][3][12]
2. To clear fish or skins of slime by scraping, as before canning.^[19][3][12]
3. To become slimy, or to move or make one's way in a slimy or stealthy manner.^[3][12][13]

Word family

• slimeball
• slimy
• slime mold

Related words

• lime
• loam
• slick
• slip

Usage notes

The OED treats slime "to move in a gliding, stealthy or sneaking manner" (from 1898) as a word of obscure origin,^[12] while the Shorter Oxford puts this use under the verb formed from the noun.^[13] In Caithness and North Yorkshire slime was also a dialect verb meaning to scamp one's work or idle when not watched.^[17]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins