English
slug
Slug comes from Middle English slugge ‘lazy person", also "sloth, slothfulness’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slugge‘lazy person", also "sloth, slothfulness’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590slug
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slugge‘lazy person", also "sloth, slothfulness’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590slug
Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto I: “To slug in slouth and sensuall delights.”
The story
Originally referred to a slow, lazy person, from Middle English slugge (‘lazy person", also "sloth, slothfulness’), probably of either Old English or Old Norse origin; perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sliǵ-ōn, from *sley- (‘smooth; slick; sticky; slimy’) or otherwise from the root of Old Norse slókr (‘lazy person, oaf’), whence Icelandic slókur (‘laziness’). The sense of a hitchhiking commuter is from the sense of a counterfeit bus token. Bus operators considered sluggers to be cheating as if they were using counterfeit tokens.
Linked words
through Middle English slugge ‘lazy person", also "sloth, slothfulness’
Another origin of slug
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*slak-‘to hit, strike, throw’uncertain
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slahaną‘to hit, strike’uncertain
- Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slagiz‘a blow, strike’uncertain
- Englishtodayslug
Also compare slog.
Today it means
noun Any of many gastropod mollusks, having no (or only a rudimentary) shell.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English slugge / slug