sledge

sledge · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*slagjǭ
2. Old English · derived fromsleċġ“sledgehammer; mallet”
3. Middle English · inherited fromslegge
4. English todaysledge

From Middle English slegge, from Old English sleċġ (“sledgehammer; mallet”), from Proto-Germanic *slagjǭ. Cognate with Dutch slegge (“sledge”), Swedish slägga (“sledge”), Norwegian Bokmål slegge (“sledge”), Norwegian Nynorsk sleggje (“sledge”), Icelandic sleggja (“sledge”).

sledge · noun, verb²

1. Middle Dutch · derived fromsleedse
2. Dutch · derived fromsleedse
3. English todaysledge

Dialectal Dutch sleedse, from Middle Dutch sleedse, from the root of sled.

sledge · verb, noun³

From Sledge (“a surname”), influenced by sledgehammer. First attested in the 1960s in Australian English. According to Ian Chappell, originated in Adelaide during the 1963/4 or 1964/5 Sheffield Shield season. A cricketer who swore in the presence of a woman was taken to be as subtle as a sledgehammer (meaning unsubtle) and was called “Percy” or “Sledge”, from singer Percy Sledge (whose song When a Man Loves a Woman was a hit at the time). Directing insults or obscenities at the opposition team then became known as sledging.

Sledge · proper noun⁴

From sledge.