Etymology
1. O.E.
slean "to smite," also "to kill with a weapon" (class VI strong verb; past tense
sloh, slog, pp.
slagen), from P.Gmc.
*slakhanan, from base
*slog- "to hit" (cf. O.N., O.Fris.
sla, Dan.
slaa, M.Du.
slaen, Du.
slaan, O.H.G.
slahan, Ger.
schlagen, Goth.
slahan "to strike"), from PIE base from base
*slak- "to strike" (cf. M.Ir. pp.
slactha "struck,"
slacc "sword"). Modern Ger. cognate
schlagen maintains the original sense of "to strike." Meaning "overwhelm with delight" (1340) preserves some of the wider rangeof meanings that the word once had, including also "to strike a spark" (O.E.).
2. From Middle English sleen, slen, from Old English slēan (“to hit, punch, strike; to kill”), from Proto-West Germanic *slahan, from Proto-Germanic *slahaną (“to hit, strike; to kill”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”).
3. Cognates
4. Cognate with Alemannic German schlaa (“to beat, hit”), Central Franconian schlage, schlon, schloon (“to beat, hit, strike”), Dutch and Low German slaan (“to beat, hit, strike”), German schlagen, schlahen, schlahn (“to beat, hit, strike”), Luxembourgish schloen (“to beat, defeat, hit”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish slå (“to beat, hit, strike”), Faroese sláa (“to beat, strike”), Icelandic slá (“to hit, strike”), Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌰𐌷𐌰𐌽 (slahan, “to hit, smite, strike”). Related to slaughter, onslaught. See: Proto-Germanic '
*slahaną', Alemannic German '
schlaa', German, old spelling '
schlagen', Luxembourgish '
schloen', Faroese '
sláa', Icelandic '
slá'.
Verbs referencing "slay"
English
slag, Danish
slå, Norwegian
slå, Norwegian, nynorsk
slå, Luxembourgish
schloen, Middle High German
slahen, Alemannic German
schlaa.