slump

Etymology

The OED takes the verb as probably imitative, comparing plump,^[2] and the Oxford Dictionary of English, Hoad, Partridge and Skeat also call it imitative or symbolic.^[3][4][5][6] The OED adds that Norwegian slumpa has the sense "to fall into a bog", as well as the sense of slumpa and slumpe, which come from Low German slumpen and German schlumpen (“to come about, happen by accident”).^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Collins and Etymonline instead take the word as probably of Scandinavian origin, akin to the same Norwegian and Danish verbs, which Merriam-Webster glosses "to fall, fall upon" and "to stumble, fall upon, chance upon".^{[7][8][9][10]} Etymonline thinks the Scandinavian words may themselves be imitative.^[10] Barnhart calls the Scandinavian source only a possibility, and makes the Scandinavian verbs cognate with Middle Low German slump (“lucky accident”).^[11] Partridge compares the dialect noun slump, a bog, and a Norwegian dialect word for the noise of falling into water,^[5] and Merriam-Webster links the word with slump (“marsh, slime”) and, more distantly, Latin lābor (“to slide, slip, fall”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To fall or sink into a bog, swamp or muddy place, or to fall into water with a dull splash: first recorded before 1677, in I. Barrow's Works,^[2][11] and dated to the 1670s by Etymonline.^[10] Weekley quotes an earlier instance from Josselin's diary for 1659, about a snowy walk to church: "twice I slumpt in and was wett".^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed regional for a long time: Bartlett (1848) called "to slip or fall into a wet or dirty place" provincial in parts of England and in New England,^[13] and in Scots and in several English dialects the noun slump meant a marsh or a muddy hole.^[14][15] In 1839 Eliza Leslie's Behaviour Book warned that the word had too coarse a sound for a lady.^[10] In the 19th century it widened from sinking in mud to falling or collapsing heavily (1844) and to moving heavily (1854),^[2] and the noun, a slumping movement, followed in 1850.^[2][10] The financial sense, a heavy fall in prices on the stock exchange, appeared in 1888 for both the noun and the verb,^[2][10][11] and by 1896 the noun was used of a sharp decline in trade in general.^[10] Merriam-Webster dates the noun "a marked decline" to 1887.^[8] From there the word was extended to any marked falling off, as in a team's or a writer's poor run.^[15][7] Geologists took it up for a kind of landslide (1905),^[2] and engineers for the sinking of fresh concrete in a slump test (1920).^[2] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins notes that the economic sense dates only from the late 19th century.^[16]

Timeline

• 1659 – to sink into snow or mud, in Josselin's diary, quoted by Weekley.^[12]
• before 1677 – to fall or sink into a bog or muddy place.^[2][11]
• 1831 – a New England dessert of stewed fruit under a dough topping.^[2][13]
• 1836 – transitive, to throw down heavily.^[2]
• 1844 – to fall or collapse heavily or clumsily.^[2]
• 1850 – noun, a slumping movement or fall.^[2][10]
• 1854 – to move or walk heavily.^[2]
• 1888 – a heavy fall in the prices of stocks or commodities; also the verb, of prices.^[2][10][11] Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1887.^[8]
• 1896 – a sharp decline in trade or business.^[10]
• 1905 – in geology, a landslide that moves a short distance as one mass.^[2]
• 1920 – the sinking of fresh concrete when its mould is removed.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fall or sink heavily and suddenly; to collapse: After the race he slumped onto the bench.^[7][9][8]
2. To sit or stand with the body drooping; to slouch.^[7][9]
3. Of prices, business or trade, to fall off suddenly: Sales slumped after the summer.^[7][9][2]
4. Of health, interest or performance, to decline markedly; of a player or team, to perform poorly for a time.^[9][7]
5. To sink into mud, slush or the like.^[7][2]
6. Of soil or rock, to slip down a slope, often with a rotating movement.^[9][2]

Noun

1. A sudden or marked decline, as in prices, trade or activity: a slump in car sales.^[9][8][2]
2. A period of economic depression.^[9] The Slump: the Great Depression of the 1930s.^[9]
3. A period of poor performance or of low activity or commitment: The striker ended his scoring slump in the cup final.^[15][8]
4. A slumping movement or fall.^[2][15]
5. In geology, a landslide in which a mass of soil or rock slides a short way as one block.^[2]
6. In engineering, the amount by which fresh concrete sinks when its mould is removed, as measured in a slump test.^[2]

Word family

• slumpflation

Related words

• plump

Usage notes

A separate Scots noun slump, a large quantity, mostly in phrases such as by the slump, in the lump, is recorded from 1795; it is a borrowing of a Low German word for a heap or mass, related to Dutch slomp and West Frisian slompe.^[2][15][8] From it came a Scots verb slump, to lump together (1822).^[2][15] In New England an apple slump is a pudding of apples baked in dough.^[13][2]

References

1. ^ 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 s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
6. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c Bartlett, John Russell (1848), Dictionary of Americanisms, New York: Bartlett and Welford
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press