slur
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /slɜː/
ipa: /slɜɹ/
ipa: /slʌr/
ipa: /sløː/
note: Liverpool, fair–fur merger
ipa: /sleː/
note: Humberside, Teesside, fair–fur merger
ipa: /slɛː/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
ipa: /slɜː(ɹ)/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)
Forms: form: slurs
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: It seems that according to their best guess, our mother's ^([sic]) drank too much coffee or alcohol, took drugs, or were under stress during the period of our conception. Underlying all this speculation is, of course, the big slur: we're some kind of unnatural or abnormal product, outside of humanity and their religions.
ref: 1989 December 10, Zane Gilstrap, “Speculations About Why We're Gay”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 22, page 5:
glosses: An insult or slight, especially one that is muttered incoherently under one's breath.
examples: text: In interviews, current and former students of color described an environment rife with racial insensitivity, including casual uses of slurs.
ref: 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 21 Jun 2023:
text: Elon Musk's recent declaration that the term "cis" is a slur indicates just how much transphobia is now central to Twitter.
ref: 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 07 Jul 2023:
glosses: An insult or slight, especially one that is muttered incoherently under one's breath.
An extremely offensive and socially unacceptable term targeted at a group of people (such as an ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.).
examples: text: a slur on one's reputation
text: 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.
ref: 1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, […], published 1860, →OCLC:
text: This was a reproach to John, and a slur upon the dog; and both were alive to their misfortune.
ref: 1887, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Pastoral”, in Memories and Portraits, New York: Charles Scribner, page 99:
glosses: A mark of dishonour; a blight or stain.
examples: text: And now I'm drinking too much, so I'ma talk with a slur
ref: 2019, Juice Wrld, “Robbery”:
glosses: An act of running one's words together; poor verbal articulation.
glosses: Any instance of separate things gradually blending together, such as heartbeats in some medical disorders.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A set of notes that are played legato, without separate articulation.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
coordinate_terms: tie
glosses: The symbol indicating a legato passage, written as an arc over the slurred notes (not to be confused with a tie).
Derived terms: f-slur
Q-slur
r-slur
r-slurred
Related terms: slurry