slumber

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English slumeren, later slumberen and slomberen,^[2][3][4] a frequentative from Middle English slumen (“to doze”),^{[3][2][4][5][6]} formed with the Germanic verbal suffix that marks repeated or slight action, seen in -er.^[3][2] The Oxford English Dictionary derives it from slumen or from the noun slume (“light sleep”),^[7] and Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary take the verb slumen itself as probably formed from that noun,^[4][5] which is slūma (“slumber, light sleep”).^{[3][2][4][8][9]} Orel traces the Old English noun to Proto-Germanic *slumaz.^[10] The word has parallels in West Frisian slûmerje, Middle Dutch sluymeren (now sluimeren), Middle Low German slômeren and Middle High German slummern, now schlummern; Danish slumre and Swedish slumra are taken from German.^[7][3][6] Merriam-Webster also compares Norwegian slum (“sluggish”).^[4] The b between m and r is excrescent, as in number, humble and chamber.^{[3][7][11][6]} Barnhart puts it down to the influence of the noun spelling slomber,^[2] and the Oxford Dictionary of English takes the word as an alteration of the Scots and northern English sloom, with the b added for ease of pronunciation.^[12] The noun is formed from the verb, replacing the older noun slume.^[3][7][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To sleep, especially lightly; to doze: about 1220, in the Middle English Bestiary.^[7] Barnhart dates the form slumeren to before 1250 and slumberen to before 1376, in Piers Plowman;^[2] Etymonline gives the middle of the 13th and of the 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Weekley explained the frequentative form, found in English, Dutch and German alike, by the idea of dozing and intermittent sleep.^[6][3] From about 1380, in Wyclif, the verb was used figuratively of living idly or remaining sunk in sin or sloth;^[7] since 1582 it has also been used of things and faculties that lie dormant.^[7][3] Shakespeare used it in 1594 for lying at rest in death.^[7] Later extensions were "to be calm, still" (1770, Goldsmith) and "to flow sleepily" (1842, Hawthorne).^[7] A transitive use, to put to sleep or to dull, ran from the 1530s to 1639.^[7] The noun appears in the late 14th century, in Chaucer's Miller's Tale, with a possessive pronoun,^[7] and is chiefly poetic and literary;^[7][13] by 1488 it could mean a single, often short, spell of sleep, and after 1554 also a state of inactivity.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "light sleep; sleep not profound".^[14] Compounds followed: slumberland (1875), slumber-wear (1909) and slumber party (by 1942).^[3] In Yorkshire and Lancashire dialect the verb meant to lie in a heavy, comatose sleep, said especially of a sick person near death.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1220 – verb, to sleep lightly, to doze.^[7]
• c. 1380 – figurative, to live in idleness or sin.^[7]
• c. 1386 – noun, sleep, in Chaucer.^[7]
• 1488 – noun, a spell of sleep.^[7]
• 1554 – noun, a state of rest or inactivity.^[7]
• 1582 – of things, to be dormant.^[7][3]
• 1594 – to lie at rest in death.^[7]
• 1749 – to spend time in sleep, in Fielding's Tom Jones.^[7]
• 1875 – slumberland.^[3]
• by 1942 – slumber party.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sleep, especially peacefully or lightly; to doze: The baby slumbered in her cot all afternoon.^[16][4][7]
2. To lie dormant or inactive: The old quarrel slumbered for years.^[16][4][7]
3. To pass time in sleep, usually with away or through: He slumbered away the long Sunday.^[16][7]

Noun

1. Sleep, often in the plural: Nothing disturbed their slumbers.^[16][4][7]
2. A light or short sleep.^[4][7][13]
3. A state of inactivity or quiescence.^[16][4][7]

Word family

• slumberer
• slumberingly
• slumberless
• slumberland
• slumberous
• slumbery

Related words

• sloom

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
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)
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins