Etymograph

English

slime

Slime comes from Proto-Indo-European *sley- ‘smooth’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sley-‘smooth’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slīmąreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*slīmreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150slīm
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slime
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590slime

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sley-‘smooth’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slīmąreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*slīmreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150slīm
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slime
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590slime

Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto X: “[…] th'eternall Lord in fleshly slime / Enwombed was,…”

The story

The slang sense of "to murder" spread among Black communites throughout the 2010s and gained prominence on TikTok around 2021.

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *sley-

Today it means

noun Soft, moist earth or clay, having an adhesive quality; viscous mud; any substance of a dirty nature, that is moist, soft, and adhesive; bitumen; mud containing metallic ore, obtained in the preparatory dressing.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sley- / slime

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