SLUNGE
It was St Swithin’s Day on Thursday, hence today’s word: slunge, which can mean “wade through water or mud in a clumsy, splashing way”.
As recorded in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL, www.dsl.ac.uk), Scots is rich in words associated with wetness, and it is interesting how many of these words begin with sl-: slabber, slagger, slaister, slatch, slaurie, sluiter and slorach are just a few. The cluster sl- is what linguists call a phonaestheme, in which particular sounds are commonly associated with particular notions. Phonaesthemes aren’t consistent (there’s nothing especially wet or muddy about “slow”, for instance), but poets have always liked them.
DSL’s earliest record of slunge dates from the late 18th century, when it meant primarily “to idle or loaf about, to move or walk in a slouching, lethargic manner”. It could also mean “skulking”, or “scrounging for food”, and an 1825 Roxburghshire citation refers to a “greedy slounge, a phrase applied to a dog that goes about hanging his ears, and prying into every corner for food”. DSL is rather puzzled by the word’s origins, tracing slounge back to “lounge”, and slunge to “plunge”, describing the latter as “probably chiefly imitative”. The association with liquid may be an example of phonaesthetic attraction, whereby a word takes on connotations from other words it resembles formally.
As well as being a verb meaning wading through mud, slunge can also be used in other watery contexts. In Aberdeen a slunge is a sink with an open waste-pipe; Glaswegians give their faces “a wee slunge” to freshen up; and a rather upmarket Edinburgh record of 2004 reads as follows: “Just gie the dishes a slunge an Ah’ll pit them in the dishwasher later”.
Scots Word of the Week is written by Jeremy Smith. Jeremy Smith is Professor of English Philology in the University of Glasgow
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here