slime

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*sley-
2. Proto-Germanic*slīmą
3. Old Englishslīm
4. English todayslime

From Middle English slime, slyme, slim, slym, from Old English slīm, from Proto-West Germanic *slīm, from Proto-Germanic *slīmą, from Proto-Indo-European *sley- (“smooth; slick; sticky; slimy”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Sliem, Dutch slijm, German Schleim (“mucus, slime”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk slim, Swedish slem, Faroese and Icelandic slím (“slime”), Latin limus (“mud”), Ancient Greek λίμνη (límnē, “marsh”). The slang sense of "to murder" spread among Black communites throughout the 2010s and gained prominence on TikTok around 2021.

Words from the same roots