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slug

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English has three words spelled slug: the slow creature, the piece of metal and the hard blow.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

slug1 slow creature, mollusc

Etymology

The slow creature is inherited from Middle English slugge (“lazy person; sloth”), also slogge,[5][2] probably of Old Norse origin.[5] Most dictionaries call it Scandinavian,[6][7][8][9][10] comparing dialectal Swedish slogga (“to be sluggish”), dialectal Norwegian slugg (“large heavy body”) and sluggje (“heavy, slow person”);[11][12][6][9][2] the MED also compares Old Norse slókr (“clumsy fellow”) and Danish slog (“rascal, rogue”).[5] The OED relates the noun to the Middle English verb sluggen (“to be lazy”), recorded from about 1425, and finds the same stem earlier in forslug (c. 1315) and sluggy (before 1225).[11][13] Barnhart allows for the influence of sluggard, recorded before 1398,[2] and Ayto takes sluggard and sluggish as derived from the verb.[3] Johnson derived it from Danish and Dutch words meaning a glutton.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A lazy person: 1408, in a Middle English translation of Vegetius, which speaks of slogges or sleperes in an army.[5][2] Sloth itself, personified, appears about 1425 in The Castle of Perseverance ("Of Slugge and Slawthe").[5][11]

Semantic evolution

The word passed from lazy people to slow-moving animals and vehicles by the 1610s;[1][11] from 1548 to 1744 it was also a slow-sailing ship.[11][12] It was not used of the shell-less snail until the early 18th century,[3][15] after which it spread to other soft-bodied creatures:[1] larvae that resemble slugs (1799) and sea slugs (1855).[11] Johnson (1755) knew only the older senses, an idler or drone, and a hindrance.[14] In 1863 the hunter William Baldwin could still call one of his horses "an incorrigible slug",[15] and English dialects from Scotland to Somerset used it for a slow, idle person or animal, especially a slow horse.[16] From 1931 it was also an insult for a contemptible or fat person.[11] The verb, to be lazy or lie idle, survives mainly in slugabed and is now rare.[12][6]

Timeline

  • 1408 – a lazy person, a sluggard.[5][2]
  • c. 1425 – sloth personified; verb, to be lazy or lie idle.[11][5]
  • 1548 – a slow-sailing ship (obsolete by 1744).[11]
  • 1618 – a slow-moving animal or vehicle.[11] Etymonline dates the extension to animals to the 1610s.[1]
  • 1704 – a shell-less land snail.[1][2] The OED's first record is perhaps from 1703.[11]
  • 1799 – a larva resembling a slug.[11]
  • 1855 – a sea slug.[11]
  • 1931 – a contemptible or fat person.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A land gastropod like a snail but with no shell or only a very small one, with a soft, slimy body: Slugs had eaten the young lettuces overnight.[17][6][11]
  2. Any of various other soft-bodied invertebrates, such as the larvae of some sawflies or a sea slug.[17][11]
  3. A slow, lazy person; a sluggard.[6][11][12]
  4. (archaic) An animal, vehicle or other thing that moves slowly.[6][11][12]
  5. (obsolete, 1548–1744) A slow-sailing ship.[11][12]

Verb

  1. (rare) To be idle or lazy; to lie idle, as in bed.[6][12][11]
  2. (rare) To move slowly; to loiter.[6][12][11]

Word family

  • sluggish
  • slugabed
  • sluglike
  • sea slug

slug2 piece of metal, bullet; drink

Etymology

The piece of metal is of uncertain origin.[11][2][1][13][3] The OED, Barnhart, Klein and Etymonline suggest that it is a special use of the slow creature, slug1, named for its shape;[11][12][2][13][1] Ayto points out that this assumes the mollusc sense existed about a century before its first record.[3] Weekley connected it with slug3, the blow, and thought a Dutch or German origin likely, since it appears late.[18] The sense of a drink of spirits may come from the slang phrase “fire a slug”, to take a drink,[1] though Etymonline and Ayto also mention Irish slog (“swallow”).[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A piece of lead or other metal for firing from a gun; a roughly formed bullet: 1622, in a Durham sessions roll.[11][2] Etymonline dates it to the 1620s.[1]

Semantic evolution

A drink of strong liquor was called a slug from 1756;[11][2][1] the sense is now chiefly American.[11] In the 19th century the word spread to other lumps of metal: crude metal or a gold nugget (1849), the heavy gold pieces privately coined in California from 1849 (1851), and in American slang a dollar, a counterfeit coin or a token (1881 in Barnhart and Etymonline, 1887 in the OED).[11][2][1][6] In printing it was a thin strip of type metal for spacing lines (1871), later a whole line cast by a Linotype machine;[1][2][11] from this came the journalists' slug-line, the short heading on a story in draft, and the verb "to give a slug-line" (by 1925).[1][11] 20th-century technical uses include a rod of nuclear fuel (1945) and a compact mass of liquid moving through a pipe (1947).[11] The verbs "to load a gun with slugs" (1831) and "to drink in gulps" (1856, in slug it up) come from the noun.[11][2][19]

Timeline

  • 1622 – a piece of metal fired from a gun.[11][2]
  • 1756 – a drink of strong liquor.[11][2][1]
  • 1831 – verb, to load a gun with slugs.[11][6]
  • 1849 – a lump of crude metal; a gold nugget.[11]
  • 1851 – a heavy gold piece privately coined in California.[11]
  • 1856 – verb, to drink, in slug it up.[11][2][19]
  • 1871 – in printing, a strip of type metal used for spacing.[1][2]
  • 1881 – a token or counterfeit coin.[2][1] The OED's first record of the American slang sense is from 1887.[11]
  • 1925 – verb, in journalism, to give a story a slug-line.[11][1]
  • 1945 – a rod of nuclear fuel.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bullet, especially a roughly formed one; formerly a lump of lead fired from a gun.[6][11][12]
  2. A disc of metal used in place of a coin, as a token or a counterfeit, in a slot machine.[6][11]
  3. A quantity of strong drink taken in one gulp; a dram: She knocked back a slug of rum and went out.[12][11][19]
  4. In printing, a strip of metal for spacing lines of type, or a line of type cast in one piece.[11][1]
  5. A lump or bar of metal, such as a rough piece for further working or a rod of nuclear fuel.[6][11]

Verb

  1. To load (a gun) with slugs.[6][12][11]
  2. To drink in large gulps; to swig.[12][11][19]
  3. (journalism) To mark (copy) with a slug-line.[12][11]

slug3 hard blow

Etymology

The hard blow is of uncertain origin, first recorded in northern English dialect.[2][1][6] The OED derives the noun from the verb, which it compares with slog,[11] and the Shorter Oxford calls the verb parallel to slog;[12] Green's Dictionary of Slang points out that the noun is recorded before the verb.[19] Etymonline suggests a connection with slaughter or slay,[1] and Ayto traces this word and slog ultimately to a prehistoric Germanic base meaning "to hit", the source of slay and slaughter;[3] Wiktionary proposes Proto-Germanic *slagiz (“a blow, stroke”).[4] Dictionary.com takes it from the phrase “hit with a slug”.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A heavy blow: 1830, in Thomas Wilson's The Pitman's Pay, in dialect.[11][2][6] Green's Dictionary of Slang has a figurative use of the plural in 1820.[19]

Semantic evolution

The verb, to strike hard, is recorded from 1862 in the dialect of Leeds.[11][2] Wright's dialect dictionary found it in Scotland, the north of England and the Midlands, and in America, also meaning to thrash or defeat.[16] In America it became a boxing word, giving slugger, a boxer, in 1877, and later a hard-hitting batter in baseball.[2][6] From 1925 it was used figuratively for treating roughly, exploiting or overcharging, the last chiefly in Australian slang,[11][12] and slug it out, to fight it out, is recorded from 1943.[11][1] North American slang also has slugfest, a hard-hitting contest.[12]

Timeline

  • 1820 – a blow, figuratively.[19]
  • 1830 – a heavy blow.[11][2][6]
  • 1862 – verb, to strike hard.[11][2][1]
  • 1877 – slugger, a boxer, in American English.[2]
  • 1925 – verb, to treat roughly, exploit or overcharge.[11]
  • 1943 – slug it out, to fight it out.[11][1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hard blow, especially with the fist.[6][12][11]

Verb

  1. To hit hard, especially with the fist or a heavy object: The boxer slugged his opponent in the third round.[6][12][11]
  2. (baseball) To hit (the ball) hard.[6][12]
  3. slug it out: to fight or compete hard until one side wins.[11][1]
  4. (Australia, slang) To charge someone too much.[12][11]

Word family

  • slugger
  • slugfest

References

  1. ^ 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  2. ^ 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g 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 i j k l m n o p q r s t u Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ 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 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ 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)
  17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  18. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  19. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com