slur
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
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”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
slur (plural slurs)
- An insult or slight.
- a racial slur
- (music) A set of notes that are played legato, without separate articulation.
- (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
- (obsolete) A trick or deception.
- In knitting machines, a device for depressing the sinkers successively by passing over them.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
insult or slight
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symbol indicating a legato passage
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VerbEdit
slur (third-person singular simple present slurs, present participle slurring, simple past and past participle slurred)
- To insult or slight.
- ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Marriage of Geraint
- And how men slur him, saying all his force
Is melted into mere effeminacy?
- And how men slur him, saying all his force
- ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Marriage of Geraint
- 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.
- (music) To play legato or without separate articulation; to connect (notes) smoothly.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Busby to this entry?)
- To soil; to sully; to contaminate; to disgrace.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Cudworth to this entry?)
- To cover over; to disguise; to conceal; to pass over lightly or with little notice.
- 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis; John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] 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 80026745:
- With periods, points, and tropes, he slurs his crimes.
- To cheat, as by sliding a die; to trick.
- 1662, Samuel Butler, Hudibras
- to slur men of what they fought for
- 1662, Samuel Butler, Hudibras
- (printing, dated) To blur or double, as an impression from type; to mackle.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to insult or slight
to articulate poorly
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to cover over, disguise, conceal; to pass over with little notice
Further readingEdit
- Slur (music) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia