slaw

 

Borrowed (around 1861) from Dutch sla, shortened from salade (“salad, lettuce”).^[1][2]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /slɔː/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /slɔ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /slɑ/
• Rhymes: -ɔː

slaw (countable and uncountable, plural slaws)

1. (US, Canada) Coleslaw.
   • 1996, Jerry Bledsoe, “Slaw Crazy”, in Lee Harrison Child, editor, Close to Home: Revelations and Reminiscences by North Carolina Authors, page 66:

     Barbecue is always served with slaw in North Carolina and always has been.

   • 2002, Alex Haas, Everyday Low Carb Cooking, page 73:

     My boss, whose daughter was a working chef, told me that I made the best slaws that she had ever tasted. The secret is that slaws deserve as much care in their preparation as any other good meal.

   • 2010, Judy Doherty, Salad Secrets: 100 of the Most Creative, Healthful Recipes, page 103:

     Slaws go well with grilled lean protein items and sandwiches.

• awls, Laws, WASL, LAWS, Wals, LAWs, lwas, laws

• slǣw, slēaw

From Proto-West Germanic *slaiw, from Proto-Germanic *slaiwaz (“blunt, dull, faint, weak, slack”), of uncertain origin.

• IPA^(key): /slɑːw/

slāw

1. lazy
2. slow, inert

• slāwlīċe
• slǣwþ

• Middle English: slaw, slow
  • English: slow
  • Geordie English: slaw
  • Scots: slaw

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “Sláw”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[1], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.