Slew is an American colloquialism meaning a large number. Its origins are unclear, but it is perhaps taken from the Irish 'slua', meaning 'army' or 'host'.
Slew es un coloquialismo americano que significa una gran cantidad. Sus orígenes son inciertos, pero quizás provienen del irlandés 'slua', que significa 'ejército' o 'multitud'.
| Word | slew |
|---|---|
| Date | April 25, 2018 |
| Type | noun |
| Syllables | SLOO |
| Etymology | Slew appeared as an American colloquialism in the early 19th century. Its origins are unclear, but it is perhaps taken from the Irish slua, a descendant of Old Irish slúag, meaning "army," "host," or "throng." Slew has several homographs (words that are spelled alike but different in meaning, derivation, or pronunciation) in English. These include: slew as the past tense of the verb slay; slew as a spelling variant of slough, a word which is also commonly pronounced \SLOO\ and which means "swamp," "an inlet on a river," or "a creek in a marsh or tide flat"; and the verb slew, meaning "to turn, veer, or skid." |
| Examples | Daniel regularly receives a slew of clothing catalogs as part of his junk mail. "We had two weeks off and wanted to take a fun mother-daughter trip to Europe but didn't want to grapple with the slew of flights we'd have to take to visit multiple cities or the constant unpacking and packing involved on such a trip." — Shivani Vora, The New York Times, 11 Mar. 2018 |
| Definition | : a large number |
Tags: wordoftheday::noun
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