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sling

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Etymology and origin of the English word sling

Pronunciation

sling1 weapon, strap; to throw

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1225 before 1225, Juliana
Borrowed from
Old Norse slyngva via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *slingwaną

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English slingen,[2][3] probably borrowed from Old Norse slyngva (“to throw, sling”),[4][5][3][6][7][8][2] from Proto-Germanic *slingwaną.[5][1] Related forms are Old High German slingan, Middle Low German slingen and Middle Dutch slingen (modern German schlingen), which usually mean to creep, wind or twist, though the sense "to throw" appears in Middle High German slingen and in dialects of German;[4] Old English seems to have had a rare slingan (“to creep, twist”).[4][5][6][7] Barnhart compares Lithuanian slinkti (“to creep”) and traces the group to Proto-Indo-European *slenk-,[6][1] while Etymonline reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *slengwh- (“to slide, make slide; sling, throw”).[5] Old French eslinguer is of Germanic origin too.[4][2] The noun, the weapon, is inherited from Middle English slinge,[9][2] apparently of continental origin,[4][5] most probably borrowed from Middle Low German slinge,[6][3][10][11][12] corresponding to Old Frisian slinge (“sling, loop”) and slinga, modern Schlinge.[6][10][7] Ayto points out that the verb at first meant specifically to throw with a sling, so that the noun and the verb are clearly connected.[11] The loop for hoisting loads, recorded from 1323, is treated by the OED and Hoad under a heading of its own: its immediate source is not clear, but it is perhaps ultimately the same word, and its senses match those of the Low German and German nouns above, which also mean a noose, a snare or an arm-sling, and which passed into eslingue.[4][10] Dictionary.com, too, allows that the strap and hoisting sense may have a distinct origin.[13] The verb meaning to hoist with a sling, recorded from 1522, comes from that noun.[4][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To strike or knock down with a sling: before 1225, in the life of Saint Juliana,[4] about 1200 in Etymonline and Barnhart.[5][6] The general sense "to throw, hurl" follows by about 1250,[6][5] and the noun, the weapon, is first found as slynge in Kyng Alisaunder, probably before 1300.[6]

Semantic evolution

The verb soon widened from throwing with a sling to throwing or flinging anything (c. 1290, in the South English Legendary),[4][14] and Chaucer has the past tense slong, threw.[15] The noun likewise had a figurative use from about 1315,[4] and after 1535 it could also name a large engine for hurling stones, a ballista.[4] In the 14th century sling was also a loop of rope or chain for hoisting heavy goods (1323–24),[4][6][5] which led to the leather strap for carrying a rifle (1711),[4][5] the hanging loop of cloth that supports an injured arm, first in Defoe's Captain Singleton (1720),[4][6][5] and in the 20th century a climber's rope loop (1920).[4] The verb "to hoist in a sling" is recorded from 1522, and "to hang loosely, as a hammock" from the 1690s.[4][5][6] The noun "a throw, a cast" dates from 1530;[4] Shakespeare's "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" in Hamlet gave a lasting phrase for misfortunes.[16][3] From the 19th century the verb had many colloquial uses: to hand out or serve (sling hash, to wait at tables, US, 1860), sling ink (1870) and sling one's hook, to clear off (1873).[4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a missile weapon made of a strap and two strings.[17] In English dialects the past tense was often slang or sleng.[18]

Timeline

  • before 1225 – to strike down with a sling.[4][6]
  • c. 1250 – to throw, hurl.[6][5]
  • c. 1300 – noun, the weapon.[5][6]
  • 1323 – a loop for hoisting heavy goods.[4][6]
  • 1522 – verb, to place in a sling for hoisting.[4][6][3]
  • 1530 – a throw, a cast.[4]
  • 1697 – to hang up from one point to another, as a hammock.[4][5]
  • 1711 – a strap for carrying a rifle.[4][5]
  • 1720 – a loop of cloth supporting an injured arm.[4][6][5]
  • 1860 – to hand out or serve, as in sling hash (US).[4]
  • 1873 – sling one's hook, to go away.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A simple weapon made of a loop of leather or a strap with two cords, in which a stone is whirled and then let fly.[19][20][21][4]
  2. A slingshot.[19][20]
  3. A looped rope, strap or chain used to lift, lower or carry something heavy: The crane lowered the crates in a net sling.[19][20][21][4]
  4. A wide piece of cloth hung from the neck to support an injured arm or hand.[21][4]
  5. A strap for carrying a rifle over the shoulder.[19][4]
  6. A strap of a shoe that fits over the heel.[19]
  7. (nautical) The middle part of a yard, or the rope or chain that holds it up.[21][4]
  8. An act of throwing; a cast or fling: the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (Shakespeare).[3][4][16]

Verb

  1. To throw, especially carelessly or with a swinging motion: He slung his jacket onto the chair.[3][20][19]
  2. To hurl a stone or other missile with a sling.[3][19][4]
  3. To place in a sling in order to hoist or lower; to move by means of a sling.[3][19][4]
  4. To hang loosely or from one point to another: They slung a hammock between two palms.[19][20][4]
  5. (informal) To hand out or serve: sling hash, to work as a waiter (US).[4]

Word family

  • slinger
  • slingshot
  • slings and arrows

sling2 drink

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1768

Etymology

The drink is of unknown origin.[3][20][12][22][11][23] Etymonline suggests that it may come from the idea of "throwing back" a drink, from the verb sling "to throw",[5] and the OED compares the slang noun sling, a drink or pull from a bottle, recorded from 1788.[4][14] Weekley and Klein derived it instead from German schlingen (“to swallow”) or verschlingen,[24][7][5] a suggestion that Weekley marked with a question mark.[24]

Earliest recorded meaning

Merriam-Webster dates the drink to 1768;[3][20] the OED's first quotation, from the National Gazette of Philadelphia, is from 1792, the date Etymonline also gives, and both call it an American word.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The OED describes the drink as spirits such as brandy or rum mixed with water, sweetened and flavoured,[4] and Bartlett (1848) as equal parts of rum and water, sweetened.[25] In Somerset and Cornwall a sling was a dram or a toddy with nutmeg grated on top, and the EDD quotes the American Haliburton's Clockmaker (1836), which lists it beside the cocktail, the julep and the sherry cobbler.[18] Haliburton also used sling as a verb, to drink slings.[4][5] In sugar making sling was the juice of the sugar cane (1826).[4][12] The best-known kinds are the gin sling and the Singapore sling.[12][3]

Timeline

  • 1768 – a sweetened drink of spirits and water.[3][20] The OED and Etymonline date it to 1792.[4][5]
  • 1826 – the juice of the sugar cane, in sugar making.[4][12]
  • 1836 – verb, to drink slings.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A mixed drink of gin, whiskey, brandy or rum with water, sugar and usually lemon or lime, served hot or cold: a rum sling.[3][20][19][12]
  2. In sugar making, the juice of the sugar cane.[4][12]

Verb

  1. To drink slings.[3][4]
  • slink

Usage notes

Several minor words share the spelling: an obsolete sling, a kind of cannon or culverin (1547–1736), is a variant of slang, from slang (“serpent”);[4][12] and in Worcestershire, Shropshire and Herefordshire a sling was a long narrow field or strip of land.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ 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 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  16. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  18. ^ a b c 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)
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  21. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  22. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  23. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  24. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  25. ^ Bartlett, John Russell (1848), Dictionary of Americanisms, New York: Bartlett and Welford

Related etymologies

  • hawk · also from Middle Low German
  • stove · also from Middle Low German
  • scrub · also from Middle Low German
  • damp · also from Middle Low German
  • wig · also from Middle Low German
  • knob · also from Middle Low German
  • stump · also from Middle Low German
  • skipper · also from Middle Low German
Cite this entry

“Sling.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/sling. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·