slattern
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
Dating from the seventeenth century; related to slattering (“slovenly”), from the dialectal verb slatter (“to slop, to spill”).[1]
Pronunciation [edit]
Noun [edit]
slattern (plural slatterns)
- A slut.
- (dated) A dirty and untidy woman.[1][2][3]
- 1809, Noah Webster, Esq., An American Selection of Lessons in Reading and Speaking: Calculated to Improve the Minds and Refine the Taste of Youth, to Which are Prefixed Rules in Elocution and Directions for Expressing the Principal Passions of the Mind, p24
- 3. Cookery is familiar to her, with the price and quality of provisions; and she is a ready accountant. Her chief view, however, is to serve her mother and lighten her cares. She holds cleanliness and neetness to be indispensable in a woman; and that a slattern is disgusting, especially if beautiful.
- 1868, Lizzie Leavenworth, ★★Slattern Genius★★, the 17th day of September; quoted in:
- 2001, Anne Russo & Cherise Kramarae, The Radical Women’s Press of the 1850s, p202
- […] How many times I have heard a woman called a slattern, because she could not keep a house in order, when had she been allowed to write out her sublime thoughts, which were all in another direction, she would have astonished the world with her genius.
- 1933, Noel Coward, Private Lives: an Intimate Comedy in Three Acts, Act Ⅲ
- AMANDA: I’ve been brought up to believe that it’s beyond the pale, for a man to strike a woman.
- ELYOT: A very poor tradition. Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs.
- AMANDA: You’re an unmitigated cad, and a bully.
- ELYOT: And you’re an ill-mannered, bad tempered slattern.
- AMANDA (loudly): Slattern indeed.
- ELYOT: Yes, slattern, slattern, slattern, and fishwife.
- VICTOR: Keep your mouth shut, you swine.
- AMANDA: I’ve been brought up to believe that it’s beyond the pale, for a man to strike a woman.
- 1809, Noah Webster, Esq., An American Selection of Lessons in Reading and Speaking: Calculated to Improve the Minds and Refine the Taste of Youth, to Which are Prefixed Rules in Elocution and Directions for Expressing the Principal Passions of the Mind, p24
- A prostitute who attracts customers by walking the streets.[3]
Synonyms [edit]
- See Wikisaurus:promiscuous woman
- (untidy woman): moggy (archaic)
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
slut — see slut
dated: dirty and untidy woman
prostitute — see prostitute
