sluice

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English scluse, later sluse,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French escluse (“sluice, floodgate”),^[5][4][3][6] now écluse,^[5][4][7] from Late Latin exclūsa (“barrier to shut out water”),^[4][3][6][8] the feminine singular of exclūsus, the past participle of exclūdō (“to shut out”),^[5][4][3] from ex- (“out”) and claudō (“to shut”).^[9][10] It is explained as short for aqua exclūsa (“water shut out”), water separated from the river.^{[4][11][10][12]} Hoad and Ayto reconstruct the noun as Gallo-Roman *exclūsa.^[7][9] The loss of the first syllable has been called a shortening within English,^[4][10] while the MED also compares the shortened forms sclūsa and slūsa.^[2] The Anglo-Norman form is recorded from the later 12th century.^[13] The same Old French noun is the source of Middle Dutch sluse, now sluis, and of Middle Low German sluse and German Schleuse.^[5][11] The modern spelling, like that of juice, became general only in the 18th century.^[5][3] The verb comes from the noun.^[5][4][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dam or embankment with a gate for holding back and controlling the water of a river or canal: 1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, where the use is already also figurative.^[5][3] Etymonline says the mid-14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From 1601 it could mean the paddle or slide that holds water back.^[5] From 1617 it could mean any valve or pipe that lets water in or out,^[5] while from before 1552 it was also a channel or drain carrying off surplus water.^[5] Figurative sluices were common in the 17th century.^[5] A 17th- and 18th-century sense, a gap, a gash or a wound (1648–1752), has died out,^[5][14] as has a rare use for a drawbridge (1642–54).^[5] In gold-washing the word was applied to a sloping trough with grooves, in which a current of water washed the gold from the gravel (1851).^[5][4] The verb, first recorded in Nashe (1593),^[5][3] meant letting out water, or blood or feeling in figurative use.^[5] Green's dictionary of slang quotes "sluic'd" for sexual intercourse from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.^[15] From 1755 the verb also meant drenching or washing with a stream of water,^[5] and by 1859 washing ore in a miner's sluice.^[5][4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a watergate; a floodgate; a vent for water", deriving it from Dutch and French.^[16] In Galloway dialect a sluich-board was a sluice gate.^[17] A West Yorkshire verb sluice, also written slewse, meant to sneak off.^[17]

Timeline

• 1340 – a dam with an adjustable gate, also figurative; as scluse.^[5][3]
• c. 1400 – the form sluse.^[3][4]
• before 1552 – a channel or drain for surplus water.^[5]
• 1593 – verb, to let out or draw off water; also to pour out as through a sluice.^[5][3]
• 1601 – the paddle or slide in a gate.^[5]
• 1617 – a valve or pipe regulating water.^[5]
• 1648 – a gap, gash or wound (obsolete by 1752).^[5]
• 1755 – verb, to drench or flush with water.^[5]
• 1779 – the compound sluiceway.^[4]
• 1851 – a sloping trough for washing gold.^[5][4]
• 1859 – verb, to wash ore in such a trough.^[5][4]
• 1877 – verb, to send logs down a sluiceway.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An artificial channel for water, with a gate that controls the flow: The miller opened the sluice before dawn.^[12][8][5]
2. The gate itself; a floodgate.^[12][8][5]
3. The body of water held back by such a gate.^[12][8][14]
4. A device that regulates a flow of water, such as a valve or pipe.^[8][5][14]
5. In mining, a sloping trough with riffles for washing gold from ore.^[12][8][5]
6. An artificial channel for floating logs.^[12]
7. (informal) A brief wash in running water.^[12]
8. (obsolete, 1648–1752) A gap or opening; a gash or wound.^[5][14]

Verb

1. To draw off water from a pond or the like by means of a sluice.^[12][5][14]
2. To let out water, or to make it flow, by or as if by a sluice.^[8][5][14]
3. To wash or drench with a stream of water: He sluiced the muddy yard with a hose.^[8][5][14]
4. To wash ore in a sluice.^[8][5]
5. To flow or pour as if through a sluice: Rain sluiced down the windows.^[5][14]
6. To send logs down a sluiceway.^[5]

Word family

• sluicelike
• sluicy
• sluiceway

Related words

• exclude
• close
• clow

Usage notes

The slang phrase sluice one's gob means to drink heartily.^[14][15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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)