• sleigh •
Pronunciation: slay • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun, Verb
Meaning: 1. [Noun] A light carriage on narrow runners pulled by dogs, horses, or in very northern climes, reindeer. 2. [Verb] To ride in a sleigh.
Notes: English has several words for vehicles that slide across snow or ice. A sled usually a small toy for sliding down hills though a bobsled can accommodate 4 or more people. A sledge is a work sleigh, heavily built, pulled by horses or oxen over the snow or over snowless ground. The sleigh is a light, festive vehicle that we associate with happy times around Christmas.
In Play: We are approaching that time of the year when a most famous "miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer" will sail across the rooftops of our children's imaginations, "with a little old driver, so lively and quick, [they will all know] in a moment it must be St. Nick." For a showroom of sleighs built in the United States, click here.
Word History: The reason sled and sleigh are so similar is that they come from the same source. This good holiday word is another English borrowed twice from the same language: Dutch slede, slee "sleigh", only we assigned the two words different meanings. All the Germanic languages have very similar words meaning either "sleigh" or "sled": Norwegian slede, Swedish släde, Danish slæde, German Schlitte. They are all remindful of English slide, which is where they all come from—the local word for "slide". The spelling? If we borrowed this word from Dutch slee, why to we spell it sleigh? It has been spelled slay and sley in the past but English speakers love letters that are no more than decorative curlicues, and what better place for decorative curlicues than on the word for sleighs?
--Dr. Goodword
Sleigh
I wonder if there is a slight relation to sleight?
mark maybe-just-sly Baileysleight (slt)
n.
1. Deftness; dexterity.
2. A clever or skillful trick or deception; an artifice or stratagem.
[Middle English, alteration of sleahthe, from Old Norse slgdh, from slgr, sly.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1476
- Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:58 pm
- Location: Carolinia Agrestícia: The Forest Primeval
Now I'm really wondering if there's some reason the original posts are not showing up....?
Sleigh 12/24
Boxing Day 12/26
Am I doing something wrong? They show up for me
At least one got a reply too. Should we notify the Mod Gods?
Sleigh 12/24
Boxing Day 12/26
Am I doing something wrong? They show up for me
At least one got a reply too. Should we notify the Mod Gods?
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1476
- Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:58 pm
- Location: Carolinia Agrestícia: The Forest Primeval
Not at all, I just wondered why they'd need duplication. While The Doctor Is Out I've been posting each one as soon as it hits the front page. Of course they may sink on the list when an older, odder WotD gets abuzz.
Also as noted before, these recent seasonal terms are replays from previous years so they may have a familiar ring, hence my call for new ones (Larry? I got Yule in the can...)
'sides, I wooden argue with Gailr - she's got daggers now
Also as noted before, these recent seasonal terms are replays from previous years so they may have a familiar ring, hence my call for new ones (Larry? I got Yule in the can...)
'sides, I wooden argue with Gailr - she's got daggers now
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
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