slur
pronunciation
How to pronounce slur in British English:
UK [slɜ:(r)]
How to pronounce slur in American English:
US [slɚ]
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- Noun:
- (music) a curved line spanning notes that are to be played legato
- a disparaging remark
- a blemish made by dirt
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- Verb:
- play smoothly or legato
- speak disparagingly of; e.g., make a racial slur
- utter indistinctly
- become vague or indistinct
Word Origin
- slur (n.)
- "deliberate slight, disparaging or slighting remark," c. 1600, from dialectal slur "thin or fluid mud," from Middle English slore (mid-15c.), cognate with Middle Low German sluren, Middle Dutch sloren "to trail in mud." Related to East Frisian sluren "to go about carelessly," Norwegian slora "to be careless." Literal sense of "a mark, stain, smear" is from 1660s in English. The musical sense (1746) is from the notion of "sliding." Meaning "act or habit of slurring" in speech is from 1882.
- slur (v.)
- c. 1600, "smear, soil by smearing," from slur (n.). Meaning "disparage depreciate" is from 1650s. In music, from 1746; of speech, from 1893. Related: Slurred; slurring.
Example
- 1. She had dared to cast a slur on his character .
- 2. I just said that " nigger " is a racial slur .
- 3. It 's a slur on his character .
- 4. It 's a slur on his good name .
- 5. No such slur is permitted in beijing .