The story
- Latin · derived fromlaxus“loose, slack”
- Swedish · derived fromslak“slack, soft and flexible”
- Old Norse · derived fromslókr“lazy fellow”
- Middle English · inherited fromslugge
- English todayslouch
Unclear. Perhaps from Middle English slugge, from Old Norse slókr (“lazy fellow”). See also Swedish sloka (“to slouch, wilt”), related to Swedish slak (“slack, soft and flexible”) and Latin laxus (“loose, slack”).
Words from the same roots
Middle Englishslugge all →
sludgeslug
Old Norseslókr all →
slotch
Latinlaxus all →
lax
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.