slog

Etymology

It is of obscure origin;^{[2][3][4][5][6]} several dictionaries take it as probably a variant from English of slug, to hit hard,^{[7][8][9][10]} a parallel dialect word with the same meaning.^[6][4][11] Partridge thought both slog and slug either imitative or from a Middle Dutch or Middle Low German form of the verb related to slay, comparing Dutch slag (“a heavy blow”) and German schlagen,^[12] and Weekley likewise suggested the Dutch and German words for a blow.^[13] The word began in the slang of boxing.^[8][13][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To hit hard: 1824, in the Session Papers of the Central Criminal Court in London;^[2][7][3][8] Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes Bell's Life in London in 1829 for "slogging hits" given by a boxer.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From hitting hard, the verb came to mean to deal heavy blows at something and so to work hard or labour away, which Etymonline and the OED record from 1846.^[8][2] The sense of walking heavily or doggedly, as through snow or mud, appears in 1872, in C. S. Calverley's Fly Leaves;^[2][7][8] the noun followed the same path, from a hard blow (1846) to a spell of hard, steady work (1888).^[2][7] In cricket, slog has meant to hit the ball hard and with abandon since 1869, and a slog is such a stroke.^[2][4][14] In 19th-century underworld slang a slog was also a fight.^[11] Weekley noted the dialect use for plodding and the soldiers' word foot-slogger.^[13]

Timeline

• 1824 – verb, to hit or strike hard.^[2][7][3]
• 1846 – to work hard, labour away; noun, a hard blow.^[2][8][7]
• 1865 – noun, a fight, in underworld slang.^[11]
• 1869 – in cricket, to hit the ball hard and wildly.^[2]
• 1872 – to walk heavily or doggedly.^[2][7]
• 1888 – noun, hard steady work, or a spell of it.^[2][7]
• 1897 – in cricket, to score runs by hard hitting.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To work hard and steadily at something; to toil: She slogged through a pile of reports all weekend.^[14][3][2]
2. To walk or move with difficulty; to plod, as through mud or snow.^[14][3][2]
3. To hit hard, as in boxing.^[14][3][2]
4. (cricket) To hit the ball hard and wildly, or to score runs in this way.^[14][3][2]

Noun

1. Long, tiring work; drudgery.^[14][3][2]
2. A long, tiring walk or march.^[14][3]
3. A heavy blow, or in cricket a hard swipe at the ball.^[14][3][2]

Word family

• slogger
• footslog

Related words

• slug

Usage notes

In Yorkshire, Cheshire and Scotland, dialect slog was a separate word for a haze or fog, the dew on grass, or a slough or quagmire.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ 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)