sloom

English edit

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /sluːm/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Rhymes: -uːm

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English *sloume, sloumbe, slume, from Old English slūma (“sleep, slumber”), from Proto-Germanic *slūm- (“to be slack, loose, or limp”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- (“limp, flabby”). Compare slumber and Dutch sloom.

Alternative forms edit

sloum

Noun edit

sloom (plural slooms)

A gentle sleep; slumber.

Derived terms edit

sloomy

Etymology 2 edit

From Middle English slumen, slummen, from Old English *slūmian (“to slumber, sleep gently”), from Proto-Germanic *slūm- (“to be slack, loose, or limp”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- (“limp, flabby”).

Alternative forms edit

sloum, sleam

Verb edit

sloom (third-person singular simple present slooms, present participle slooming, simple past and past participle sloomed)

(Scotland) To sleep lightly, to doze, to nod; to be half-asleep.
- 1886, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Squire of Sandal-Side A Pastoral Romance:
  The squire sloomed and slept in his chair; and finally, after a cup of tea, went to bed.
- a. 1853, Jane Ermina Locke, “Elia”, in The Recalled: In Voices of the Past, and Poems of the Ideal, James Munroe and Company, published 1854, page 193:
  To his castle’s portal, / At the morning gloaming, / Bore they all the mortal / From the battle’s foaming, / Of the white bannered warrior knight, / Cold in his armor slooming!
- 1900, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Maid of Maiden lane, Dodd, Mead and Company, page 181:
  Then the doctor was slooming and nodding, and waking up and saying a word or two, and relapsing again into semi-unconsciousness.
- 1936, Esmond Quinterley, Ushering Interlude,^[1] The Fortune Press, page 66:
  The afternoon sun painted amber patterns on the Turkey red hearthrug: the only splash of colour in the dun room. Potter sloomed in the arms of the chair.
- 2001, Gemma O'Connor, Walking on Water,^[2][3] Berkley Publishing Group (2003), →ISBN, page 205:
  He lay slooming half-asleep, half-awake, thinking about Tuesday afternoon.
To soften or rot with damp. (of plants or soil)
- a. 1807, unidentified young farmer, letter to his father, printed in Edinburgh Farmers’ Magazine 1807, reprinted in The Farmer’s Register, Volume 7, Number 9 (1839 September 30), page 540:
  He adds, that one hundred bolls, or fifty quarters of wheat may be thrashed in a day of eight hours, unless the grain has been sloomed or mildewed; […]
- 1824 August, “Remarks on Captian Napier's Essay on Store-Farming”, in The Farmer’s Magazine, Volume XXV, Archibald Constable and Company (publishers), page 329:
  […] no other spot over their whole pastured offered as much verdure at this time as these seemingly sloomed places.
- c. 1854, Alexander J. Main, “Experiments with Special Manures”, in Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, W. Blackwood & Sons (1855), page 17:
  It must be explained, however, that in the latter case the “slooming” of the crop had an injurious effect on its yield; […]

References edit

Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish language (1867) [4]
“sloom”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Dictionary of the Scots Language, “sloom”

Anagrams edit

looms, mools, osmol, slo mo, slo-mo, slomo

Dutch edit

Etymology edit

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

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /sloːm/
Audio (file)
Rhymes: -oːm

Adjective edit

sloom (comparative slomer, superlative sloomst)

sluggish, lifeless

Inflection edit

Inflection of sloom
uninflected	sloom
inflected	slome
comparative	slomer
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		sloom	slomer	het sloomst het sloomste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	slome	slomere	sloomste
	n. sing.	sloom	slomer	sloomste
	plural	slome	slomere	sloomste
definite		slome	slomere	sloomste
partitive		slooms	slomers	—