Slay comes from Old English slean ('to strike, slay'), from Proto-Germanic *slahaną ('to strike'), of disputed further origin. The historical chain includes Old English slean and Proto-Germanic *slahaną. Older glosses in the chain include "to strike, slay" and "to strike", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, slay is best read as borrowing, yielding an English verb shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a verb, with the sense "to kill violently, especially in great numbers". English derivatives include slayer and slaying; related forms include slaughter and sleight. The result is an English verb whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.