sloe

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English slo,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English slā, also slāh, plural slān,^{[3][6][2][7][4][8]} from Proto-Germanic *slaihǭ.^{[1][9][10][6][11]} It is cognate with Dutch slee, German Schlehe, Old High German slēha and Swedish slån.^{[12][7][11][13]} The Germanic word has been linked with Latin līveō (“to be bluish”), the source of livid,^{[10][4][13][14]} and with Old Irish lī (“colour”).^[7][13] A Slavic word for "plum", the base of slivovitz, is possibly related too.^[10][6][12] Etymonline takes it from Proto-Indo-European *sleiə- (“bluish”),^[6] and Wiktionary reconstructs the root as *(s)leh₃y-;^[1] the fruit would then be named for its blue-black colour.^[10] The Oxford dictionaries call the link only probable or possible.^[12][15][14] The present vowel owes something to the old plural, which lasted into the 17th century,^[6][12] and the plural in -n became a singular in southern dialects.^[12][16] The older vowel survives in Scots slae.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fruit of the blackthorn: Old English, in the Corpus Glossary.^[12] Barnhart dates the Old English word to before 800,^[3] and its Middle English form slo, plural slon, to probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From about 1250 the sloe also stood for something of little or no value, as Old French parnele did.^[12] Johnson (1755) defined it as the fruit of the blackthorn, a small wild plum.^[17] The name passed from the fruit to the shrub itself, recorded in this sense from 1753.^[12] An American use is recorded from 1846–50,^[12] for various wild plums and the black haw.^[4] Sloe-eyed is recorded from 1804 and sloe gin by 1878.^[6] From 1884 the word could also mean the apple of one's eye.^[12] English dialects kept many forms: sla in Scotland and West Yorkshire, slae in Scotland, Northumberland and Cumberland, slea in Cumberland and Westmorland.^[16] A Northumberland saying advises sowing barley "when the slae tree is white as a sheet".^[16]

Timeline

• before 800 – Old English slāh, the fruit of the blackthorn.^[3]
• c. 1250 – a type of something worthless.^[12]
• before 1300 – Middle English slo, plural slon.^[3]
• 1753 – the blackthorn itself.^[12]
• 1846–50 – in the United States, wild plums and the black haw.^[12][4]
• 1884 – the apple of one's eye.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The small, sour, blue-black fruit of the blackthorn, used in preserves and to flavour liquors: We picked sloes along the hedge in October.^[18][4][12]
2. The blackthorn shrub.^[18][4][12]
3. In the United States, any of various wild plums, or the black haw.^[4][12]

Word family

• sloe-eyed
• sloe gin

Related words

• livid
• slivovitz

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
14. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ 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)
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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins