Slut
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 9:37 am
Where did this word come from? I have heard that originally it meant a woman who did not keep her room clean-is this true and if so how did it come to have such a perjurive sense?
Online Etymological dictionary shows it Could have had that meaning...
slut
c.1400, "a dirty, slovenly, or untidy woman," probably cognate with dialectal Ger. Schlutt "slovenly woman," dialectal Swed. slata "idle woman, slut," and Du. slodder "slut," but the ultimate origin is doubtful. Chaucer uses sluttish (late 14c.) in reference to the appearance of an untidy man. Also "a kitchen maid, a drudge" (mid-15c.; hard pieces in a bread loaf from imperfect kneading were called slut's pennies, 18c.). Meaning "woman of loose character, bold hussy" is attested from mid-15c.; playful use of the word, without implication of loose morals, is attested from 1660s.
Our little girl Susan is a most admirable slut, and pleases us mightily. [Pepys, diary, Feb. 21, 1664]
Sometimes used 19c. as a euphemism for bitch to describe a female dog. There is a group of North Sea Germanic words in sl- that mean "sloppy," and also "slovenly woman," and that tend to evolve toward "woman of loose morals" (cf. slattern, also English dial. slummock "a dirty, untidy, or slovenly person," 1861; M.Du. slore "a sluttish woman").
I also checked out your word "perjurative" and could not find it like that. You may have meant "pejorative"?
vey interesting! And yes I did mean pejorative lol
I have thought of posting the S word, especially when I was tracing the word "slatternly" which is another reference to an unkempt women . 