slight

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Very small in amount or degree.

   There has been a slight improvement in her health.

2. 2
   adj

   Thin and delicate in build.

   She was a slight but graceful woman.

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Simplified etymology

Slight is a Middle English word related to slick and originally meant “smooth,” though related languages also show negative senses. Its verb sense “treat with disrespect,” recorded from the late 16th century, developed from an earlier sense “level.”

From Middle English slight (“bad, of poor quality, unimportant, trivial, slender, slim, smooth, level”), from Old English sliht (“smooth, level”), from Proto-Germanic *slihtaz (“slippery, flat, level, plain”), related to English slick. Cognate with Scots slicht (“bad, of poor quality”), West Frisian sljocht (“smooth, level, plain, simple”), Dutch slecht (“bad”), Low German slecht (“bad”), German schlecht (“bad”) and schlicht (“plain, artless, natural”), Danish slet (“bad, evil, poor, nasty, wrong”), Swedish slät (“smooth”), Norwegian slett (“even”), Icelandic sléttur (“even, smooth, level”).

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External links

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