English

Etymology
Dating from the seventeenth century: related to slattering#English|slattering, �slovenly�, from the E. dialectal verb slatter#English|slatter, �to slop, to spill�.<ref name="COED-etym&def">The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]</ref>

;Hyphenation
slat·tern<ref name="M�W-hyph&def">�slattern� is listed in Merriam�Webster�s Online Dictionary</ref>

Noun
en-noun

1. A slut.
2. dated A dirty and untidy woman.<ref name"COED-etym&def"/><ref name"M�W-hyph&def"/><ref name"WNS-defs">�slattern� defined using WordNet? Search � 3·0</ref>

#* 1809: Noah Webster, Esq., An American Selection of Lessons in Reading and Speaking: Calculated to Improve the Minds and Refine the Taste of Youth, to Which are Prefixed Rules in Elocution and Directions for Expressing the Principal Passions of the Mind, p24
#*: 3.�Cookery is familiar to her, with the price and quality of provisions�;�and she is a ready accountant.�Her chief view, however, is to serve her mother and lighten her cares.�She holds cleanliness and neetness to be indispensable in a woman�;�and that a slattern is disgusting, especially if beautiful.
#* 1868: Lizzie Leavenworth, <i>^{��}Slattern Genius^{��}</i>, the 17^th day of September; quoted in:
#* 2001: Anne Russo & Cherise Kramarae, The Radical Women�s Press of the 1850s, p202
#*: �How many times I have heard a woman called a slattern, because she could not keep a house in order, when had she been allowed to write out her sublime thoughts, which were all in another direction, she would have astonished the world with her genius. Talk about women getting out of their sphere; can they do so any more than they are now. Look at the thousands of women who are not fit to be mothers, and yet are constantly bringing children into existence, children which will rise up to curse them for that very existence; and why is this? because society is forcing women into marriage, before they have any knowledge of what they are fitted for and what they might excel in. We want better wives, mothers and children, and before we can have this, we must have better women.
#* 1933: Noel Coward, Private Lives an Intimate Comedy in Three Acts, A<small>CT</small> �
#*: A<small>MANDA</small>: I�ve been brought up to believe that it�s beyond the pale, for a man to strike a woman. <br>
#*: E<small>LYOT</small>: A very poor tradition. Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs. <br>
#*: A<small>MANDA</small>: You�re an unmitigated cad, and a bully. <br>
#*: E<small>LYOT</small>: And you�re an ill-mannered, bad tempered slattern. <br>
#*: A<small>MANDA</small> i|loudly: Slattern indeed. <br>
#*: E<small>LYOT</small>: Yes, slattern, slattern, slattern, and fishwife. <br>
#*: V<small>ICTOR</small>: Keep your mouth shut, you swine. <br>
#*: E<small>LYOT</small>: Mind your own damned business. <br>
#*: [They are about to fight, when Sibyl rushes between them.] <br>
#*: S<small>IBYL</small>: Stop, stop, it�s no use going on like this. Stop, please.

1. A prostitute who attracts customers by walking the streets.<ref name="WNS-defs"/>

References
<references/>

Derived terms
slatternliness
slatternly

io:slattern
it:slattern
te:slattern
vi:slattern

• 2007-10-28 08:19 - Cynewulf - rfvpassed

Full Revision History