| Why did the cowboy order a SLUG of whiskey, and SLUG it down in one fast gulp or SLUG? Because he's a cowboy. Yes. But why can SLUG mean "gulp." Dictionary.com gueses that "slug" may refer to a size. She doesn't get paid to publish etymologies, but RW of our Edenics team bothered to think about the sound and sense of whistling-tongue-throat words (fricative-liquid-guttural) words that seem to be sending or throwing like sluge (to gulp) in Danish. Or, in her native German, RW knew that a Schlaugh is a tube with which water is directed to plants, or food is given to patients who cannot chew and swallow. Granted, the historic linguists who were tube-fed racism like French geese are not going to look for a Semitic word like שלך SHeLaKH (to send, throw out, set free). But are they also too lazy to search Germanic for more sensible etymologies than the SLOUGH that they sometimes toss out there.
the entry:
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SLACK SHaLhKH Shin-Lamed-Khaf
S(H)A-LUKH_ ___שלך___ __[S(H)-L-KH]
ROOTS: The IE “root” of SLACK is sleg (to be slack or languid).
There is an Edenic way to link SLACK with SL words of weakness. This requires an M321 or reversal of חלש K[H]aLaSH (weak, powerless -- Job 14:10). See “LOOSE.”
The Shin-Lamed -Khaf approach here is based on the sense of being let go and thrown off like SLOUGH – see “SLOUGH. “ Old English slaec (loose) is more likely from the Edenic word of letting loose.
שלך SHaLahK[H] is to send off, send away or set free. When Moses demands, "Let my people go" (Exodus 7:16) - the verb is שלך S(H)LahKH.
Today, a teen would say, “Cut me some SLACK.”
BRANCHES: To SLAKE is to lessen the hold of something… to give it SLACK, to let go… thus from the letting go of our שלך S(H)LahKH.
SLAG is a variant of SLACK (Websters). SLAG is the thrown--off dross in metallurgy. The AHD sites Middle Low German slagge, metal dross, but considers SLAG a cognate of SCHLOCK (a blow, though the Yiddish meaning of “trashy” fits SLAG).
Polish naslac means “send.”
RW theorizes that gulping food or drink is throwing or sending food rapidly down the throat. This could be why many Germanic “gulp” words (verbs) echo שלך S(H)LahKH. These include: schlucken in German, slikken in Dutch, sluka in Swedish, sluge in Danish and svelge in Norwegian. She adds that German Schlauch is a tube to send food to patients, water to plants, etc.
RW’s theory is corroborated. She explains why SLUG has a definition as seen in Dictionary.Com (Random House): “Informal To drink rapidly or in large gulps: slugged down a can of pop.
For the animal SLUG, see “SLUG.”