slughorn

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*slowgʰos
2. Proto-Celtic*slougos
3. Old Irishslóg
4. Middle Irishslúag
5. Scottish Gaelicsluagh
6. Proto-Indo-European*ǵeh₂r-
7. Proto-Celtic*garsman
8. Old Irishgairm
9. Scottish Gaelicgairm
10. Scottish Gaelicsluagh-ghairm
11. Englishsloggorne
12. Englishslughorne
13. English todayslughorn

See slogan. Sense 1 (“wind instrument”) is due to an incorrect use of the word slughorn (sense 2: “battle cry”) by the English poet Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770) in his 1760s pseudo-Medieval poetry. He described the fictional instrument in footnotes as “warlike instruments of music” (Ælla, a Tragycal Enterlude), “a musical instrument not unlike a hautboy” (Eclogue the Second), and “war trumpets” (Battle of Hastings (No. 2)). The erroneous sense was then continued by the English poet and playwright Robert Browning (1812–1889) in his 1855 poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came. The use by English author Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) in 1989 is a deliberate allusion to Chatterton.

First known use, by meaning

• 17th–19th c. Obsolete spelling of slogan (“a battle cry among the ancient Irish or highlanders of Scotland”).