Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Q&A about words Slip sliding away
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
OP A thing which has grease is greasy. A person who lacks sleep is sleepy. A thing which can cause a slip is slippery. These inconsistencies are inescapable in English, but I think I finally satisfied my curiosity about the extra syllable in “slippery.”
SLIP, to creep or glide along, to slink, move out of place, escape; also, to cause to slide, omit, let loose. (E). We have confused the strong (intransitive) and weak (transitive) forms; or rather, we have preserved only the weak verb, with pt. t. slipped, pp. slipped or slipt. The strong verb would have become *slipe, pt. t. *slope, pp. *slippen, long disused; but Gower has him slipeth (used reflexively), riming with wipeth C. A. ii. 347; bk. v. 6530. Gower also has he slipte (wrongly used intransitively), from the weak verb slippen; ... The AS. adj. sliper, slippery, is from the weak grade of the pp.
--Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, WW Skeat
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,351Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 0 members (), 775 guests, and 0 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 22ddrinnan 1
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,549tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,918Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org