slur

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slɜː(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English sloor (“thin or fluid mud”). Cognate with Middle Low German sluren (“to trail in mud”). Also related to dialectal Norwegian sløra (“to be careless, to scamp, dawdle”), Danish sløre (“to wobble, be loose”) (especially for wheels); compare Old Norse slóðra (“to drag oneself along”).

• (an extremely offensive term): Influenced by various compounds of sense 1 such as racial slur, ethnic slur, etc.

Noun

slur (plural slurs)

1. An insult or slight.
   1. An extremely offensive and socially unacceptable term targeted at a group of people (such as an ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.).
      • 2020 December 26, Dan Levin, “A Racial Slur, a Viral Video, and a Reckoning”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-21:

        In interviews, current and former students of color described an environment rife with racial insensitivity, including casual uses of slurs.

      • 2023 July 7, Johanna Mellis, “Now more than ever, cis female athletes must show solidarity with trans athletes”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-07:

        Elon Musk's recent declaration that the term "cis" is a slur indicates just how much transphobia is now central to Twitter.

2. A mark of dishonour; a blight or stain.

   a slur on one's reputation

   • 1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White. , New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, , published 1860, →OCLC:

     The undeserved slur which he had cast on my management of the household did not, I am happy to say, prevent me from returning good for evil to the best of my ability, by complying with his request as readily and respectfully as ever.

   • 1887, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Pastoral”, in Memories and Portraits, New York: Charles Scribner, page 99:

     This was a reproach to John, and a slur upon the dog; and both were alive to their misfortune.

3. An act of running one's words together; poor verbal articulation.
   • 2019, Juice Wrld, “Robbery”‎:

     And now I'm drinking too much, so I'ma talk with a slur

4. Any instance of separate things gradually blending together, such as heartbeats in some medical disorders.
6. (music) A set of notes that are played legato, without separate articulation.
8. (music) The symbol indicating a legato passage, written as an arc over the slurred notes (not to be confused with a tie).

   Coordinate term: tie

Derived terms

Related terms

• slurry

Translations

Verb

slur (third-person singular simple present slurs, present participle slurring, simple past and past participle slurred)

1. To insult or slight.
   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., , →OCLC, page 6:

     And how men slur him, saying all his force / Is melted into mere effeminacy?

2. To run together; to articulate poorly.

   to slur syllables;  He slurs his speech when he is drunk.

   • 2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884:

     Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.

3. (music) To play legato or without separate articulation; to connect (notes) smoothly.
   • 1817, Thomas Busby, A Dictionary of Music, Theoretical and Practical:

     Notes , the stems of which are joined together by cross lines, as in united quavers , semiquavers , & c . or notes over the heads of which a curve is drawn, to signify that they are to be slurred

4. To soil; to sully; to contaminate; to disgrace.
   • 1678, R[alph] Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; wherein All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted; and Its Impossibility Demonstrated, London: Richard Royston, , →OCLC:

     they do not only impudently slur the gospel, according to the history and the letter, in making it no better than a romantical legend […]

5. To cover over; to disguise; to conceal; to pass over lightly or with little notice.
   • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “ The First Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. , London: Printed for Jacob Tonson , →OCLC:

     With periods, points, and tropes, he slurs his crimes.

6. To cheat, as by sliding a die; to trick.
   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. , London: John Martyn and Henry Herringman, , published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

     to slur men of what they fought for

7. (printing, dated) To blur or double, as an impression from type; to mackle.

Derived terms

• slur over

Translations

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

slur (plural slurs)

1. In knitting machines, a device for depressing the sinkers successively by passing over them. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)

Further reading

• Slur (music) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• URLs, lurs