slattern
English
Etymology
Dating from the 17th century; related to slattering (“slovenly”), from the dialectal verb slatter (“to slop, to spill”).[1]
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "GenAm" is not valid. See WT:LOL. IPA(key): /ˈslætɚn/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL. IPA(key): /ˈslætən/
- Rhymes: -ætə(ɹ)n
- Hyphenation: slat‧tern[2]
Noun
slattern (plural slatterns)
- (derogatory) A slut, a sexually promiscuous woman.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:promiscuous woman
- (dated) A dirty and untidy woman.
- Synonym: (archaic) moggy
- 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 September 17, Lizzie Leavenworth, ★★Slattern Genius★★; quoted in 2001 by Anne Russo and Cherise Kramarae in The Radical Women’s Press of the 1850s, page 202:
- […] 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 3:
- 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.
Derived terms
Translations
slut — see slut
dated: dirty and untidy woman
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References
- ^ The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]
- ^ “slattern”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.