Etymograph

English

slate

Slate comes from Old French esclate, from esclater ‘to break, shatter’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *slaitijaną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slaitijanąreconstructed
  2. Frankishc. 250–700*slaitijan‘to split, break’reconstructed
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400esclater‘to break, shatter’
  4. Old French, derivedc. 842–1400esclate
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sclate
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1850slate

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slaitijanąreconstructed
  2. Frankishc. 250–700*slaitijan‘to split, break’reconstructed
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400esclater‘to break, shatter’
  4. Old French, derivedc. 842–1400esclate
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sclate
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1850slate

Earliest quotation: 1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology: “They landed just in front of a nice little…”

The story

The noun is derived from Middle English sclate, slat, slate (‘type of rock; roofing slate; writing slate’), from Old French esclate, a feminine form of esclat (‘broken piece, shard’) (modern French éclat), from Old French esclater (‘to break, shatter’), from Frankish *slaitijan (‘to split, break’), from Proto-Germanic *slaitijaną, the causative of *slītaną (‘to cut up, split’); further etymology unknown (see the Proto-Germanic entry for a discussion).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *slaitijaną

Another origin of slate

  1. Old Norsec. 800–1350*sleitauncertain
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slaiten‘to set a dog on an animal’
  3. Englishtodayslate

From Middle English slaiten, slat, slate (‘to set (a dog) on an animal’), from Old Norse *sleita, possibly related to Proto-Germanic *slītaną (‘to tear apart’), further etymology unknown.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Today it means

noun A piece of such stone, usually cut into a rectangular shape, used as a tile for flooring, roofing, etc.; (uncountable) such tiles collectively, or the material from which they are made.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *slaitijaną / slate

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