Etymology

slag

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Today it means: Waste material from a mine. Full definition →

Middle Low German slagge ← Old Saxon *slaggo ← Proto-West Germanic *slaggō
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*slagōną“to strike”
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*slaggô
  3. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*slaggō
  4. Old Saxon · derived from*slaggo
  5. Middle Low German · borrowed fromslagge
  6. English todayslag

Borrowed from Middle Low German slagge, slaggen (“slag, dross”), from Old Saxon *slaggo, from Proto-West Germanic *slaggō, from Proto-Germanic *slaggô, from Proto-Germanic *slagōną (“to strike”) + *-gô (diminutive suffix). Compare Middle Low German slāgen (“to strike”), since originally the splinters struck off from the metal by hammering, from *slagōn, from Proto-West Germanic *slagōn. Compare also Old Saxon slegi, from Proto-West Germanic *slagi. See also Dutch slak, German Schlacke, Swedish slagg; also compare English slay.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.