slit

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English slitten, also slitte, a weak verb;^[2][3] Hoad and Ayto take it as inherited from Old English *slittan, an Old English form that is not recorded, related to the strong verb slītan (“to slit, tear, rend”).^[4][5][6] The OED calls the link with slītan obscure, and suggests that the Middle English verb may rather match Old High German slizzan, Middle High German slitzen and German schlitzen.^[3][7][8] Old English slītan is cognate with Old Saxon slītan, Old Frisian slīta, Old Norse slíta, Dutch slijten and Old High German slīzan, whence German schleißen,^{[9][10][4][11]} and comes from Proto-Germanic *slītaną (“to tear apart”).^[9][12] Orel calls the Germanic verb of unknown origin,^[12] while Klein connects it with Lithuanian skleĩsti (“to divide, spread out”) and derives it from an enlarged form of Proto-Indo-European *skel- (“to cut”), the root of shield;^[11] Merriam-Webster also compares skélti (“to split”).^[7] According to Ayto and Etymonline, slice comes from the same Germanic base through French, and perhaps slash, slat and slate do too.^[5][9] The noun comes from the verb;^[9][3][7] the Oxford Dictionary of English traces it instead to late Old English slite (“a slit, tear”), and Old English also had geslit (“a rending, biting”).^[13][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cut open or split with a sharp weapon: in Laȝamon's Brut, probably before 1200 according to Barnhart, in a manuscript of about 1275 according to the OED.^[10][3][9] The earliest example is the past participle i-slit.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old English slītan was a more violent verb than the later slit, used of tearing to pieces, biting and backbiting, as in slitcwealm (“death by rending”).^[9][6] The Middle English verb was used figuratively for dividing or severing from about 1300,^[3] and of making an incision from the late 14th century;^[9] Chaucer used it three times.^[14] From 1522 it was a technical term for cutting iron into rods or wood into thin boards,^[3] and a slitting-mill (1660s) cut iron plates into thin rods for making nails.^[9] The noun first meant a cut or opening in clothing, before 1250 in The Owl and the Nightingale,^[3][9] then any long narrow cut from 1398,^[3] a narrow opening in a wall from 1607,^[3] and the narrow aperture of an optical instrument from 1863.^[3] The coarse slang sense "vulva" is recorded from 1648, in Herrick,^[3][9] and Green's Dictionary of Slang has it from 1620.^[15] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a long cut or narrow opening.^[16] To narrow the eyes into slits is a 20th-century use.^[3][7] In dialect the past tense could be slat (West Yorkshire) or slate (Scotland),^[17] and in Cumberland a slit was an earmark cut in a sheep's ear.^[17]

Timeline

• before 1200 – verb, to cut open or split, in Laȝamon's Brut.^[10][3]
• before 1250 – noun, a slit or opening in clothing.^[3][9]
• before 1300 – figurative, to divide or separate.^[3]
• before 1387 – adjective, of garments, slashed.^[3][9]
• 1398 – noun, a long narrow cut in general.^[3]
• 1522 – to cut iron into rods or wood into thin boards.^[3]
• 1607 – a long narrow opening in a wall.^[3]
• 1648 – coarse slang, the vulva.^[3][9]
• 1863 – a narrow aperture in an optical instrument.^[3]
• by 1913 – slit skirt.^[9]
• before 1961 – to narrow the eyes into slits.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a long, straight cut in; to cut open lengthwise: She slit the parcel open with a penknife.^[18][7][3]
2. To cut paper, film or metal into long narrow strips.^[18][7][3]
3. To cut off; to sever.^[18][7]
4. To narrow the eyes into slits, as against glare or in suspicion.^[7][3]

Noun

1. A long, narrow cut or tear.^[18][7]
2. A long, narrow opening, as in a wall or in a garment: the slit at the back of the coat.^[18][7][3]
3. A narrow aperture that admits or lets out light, as in a spectroscope or a telescope dome.^[7][3]
4. (coarse slang) The vulva.^[3][15]

Adjective

1. Long and narrow like a slit: slit windows.^[7]
2. Having a slit or slits: a slit skirt.^[7][9]

Word family

• slitter
• slitless
• slitlike
• gill slit
• slit trench

Related words

• slice
• slate
• slat
• sliver
• shell

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
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 c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins