slaught

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From Middle English slaught, slagt, slaȝt, from Old English slæht, sleaht, sleht, slieht (a stroke, a striking, a flash of lightning, slaughter, murder, death by violence, the deadly stroke of disease, battle, what is to be killed, animals for slaughter), from Proto-Germanic *slahtō, *slahtiz (beating, hitting, killing, murder), from Proto-Indo-European *slek- (to beat, pound).

Cognate with Dutch slacht (slaughter), German Schlacht (killing, battle), Swedish slakt (slaughter), Icelandic slátta (slaughter). Related to English slay.

Noun

[edit]

slaught (plural slaughts)

  1. Killing; slaughter.

Derived terms

[edit]

See also

[edit]
  • slaught-beam (probably, but not necessarily, etymologically unrelated)