Etymologically
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slippery

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈslɪpəɹi/, /ˈslɪpɹi/[1]

Etymology

It is from English slipper (“slippery”) + -y,[2][3][4] an extended form of the older adjective, inherited from Middle English sliper, also slipper,[5][3][6] inherited from Old English slipor (“slippery, not easy to hold”),[3][7][6][8] from Proto-Germanic *slipraz,[9] which Orel derives from the verb *slīpanan.[9] It is cognate with Middle Low German slipper and Old High German sleffar,[6][9] and related to slip.[3][8] The OED suggests that the longer form was perhaps modelled on Low German slipperig and Middle High German slipferic,[10][6] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford on Luther's German schlipfferig, since it is first recorded in Coverdale's translation of the Bible.[4][2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having a surface so smooth as to make one slide: about 1500 as slipperie in Etymonline and Merriam-Webster,[3][6] and in 1535, in Coverdale's Psalms, in the OED.[10][4]

Semantic evolution

The Old English adjective could already mean "unsteady, without fixed principles",[7] and Middle English sliper had the senses "deceitful, unreliable" and "forgetful" beside the literal one, and the comparison as an ele.[5] The new form took on the same range: of conditions, unstable or insecure (1548), of things, slipping from the grasp (1551), of people, hard to catch (1573) or fickle and shifty (1555), and the proverbial as slippery as an eel (1601).[10] Etymonline dates the sense "deceitful, untrustworthy" to the 1550s, and the shorter slippy to the 1540s.[3] Of the bowels it meant "loose" from 1597 to 1733.[10] Johnson (1755) defined it as "smooth; glib" and "not affording firm footing".[12] The slippery elm of North America (1748) is named for its slimy inner bark.[10][3] The figurative slippery slope, a course leading by small steps to disaster, is in the OED from 1951, but Etymonline finds it by 1844.[10][3] In 19th-century slang, slippery was a noun for soap.[13]

Timeline

  • c. 1500 – slipperie, so smooth as to make one slide.[3][6]
  • 1535 – first OED record, in Coverdale's Bible.[10][4]
  • 1548 – of conditions, unstable, insecure.[10]
  • 1551 – slipping easily from the grasp.[10]
  • 1555 – of people, fickle, shifty.[10]
  • 1601 – as slippery as an eel.[10]
  • 1748 – slippery elm.[10][3]
  • 1839 – slang noun, soap.[13]
  • 1844 – figurative slippery slope (OED: 1951).[3][10]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Having a smooth, wet or slimy surface that makes it hard to stand on or keep hold of: The steps were slippery after the frost.[6][10][2]
  2. Tending to slip from one's grasp; hard to hold or catch.[6][10]
  3. Of a person, not to be trusted; shifty or deceitful.[10][3]
  4. Unstable or uncertain; not to be relied on.[10]
  5. slippery slope: a course of action that leads by small steps to disaster.[10][3]

Noun

  1. (slang) Soap.[13]

Word family

  • slipperiness
  • nonslippery
  • unslippery
  • slippery elm
  • slippery slope

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b 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)
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com