Slum
Definitions: (noun) A street, alley, court, etc., situated in a crowded district of a town or city and inhabited by people of a low class or by the very poor; a number of these streets or courts forming a thickly populated neighborhood or district where the houses and the conditions of life are of a squalid and wretched character.
Usage:1812 J. H. VAUX Flash Dict., Slum, a room. 1823 BEE Dict. Turf. s.v., Thus we may have ‘the little slum’,..‘the back slum’, and a slum in front. 1824 Hist. Gaming 28 Regaling..in the back parlour (vulgo slum) of an extremely low-bred Irish widow.
(a)1825 WESTMACOTT Eng. Spy II. 32 The back slums lying in the rear of Broad St. 1851 DICKENS Lett. (1880) I. 251 When the back slums are going to be invaded. 1871 L. STEPHEN Playgr. Eur. (1894) ix. 203 The unspeakable ugliness of a back slum in London. 1880 R. S. WATSON Visit Wazan iv. 72 The back slums are not more inviting than those of many European towns.
(b) 1845 Athenæum 18 Jan. 75 In the thick of the once renowned ‘slums’ of St. Giles's. 1860 All Year Round No. 74. 570 An obscure cabaret. 1889 JEROME Idle Thoughts 117 A little mite sitting on a doorstep in a Soho slum. 1894 SALA London up to Date vi. 79 Large tracts of indescribably dirty, profligate, and felonious slums. 1955 Times 25 Aug. 5/5 Nowadays people who live in so-called slum houses (a ‘slum’, as officially defined means a house materially unfit for habitation), set a good standard of cleanliness. 1972 Observer 31 Dec. 8/2 He had inherited nearly two million slums.
fig. 1870 LOWELL Among my Bks. Ser. I. (1873) 84 The slums and stews of the debauched brain.
Definition (noun): Nonsensical talk or writing; gammon, blarney. Also, gipsy jargon or cant.
Usage:1812 P. EGAN BoxianaI. 122 The flowing harangue of some dusty cove..lavish with his slum on the beauties possessed by some distinguished pugilist. 1820 in Grose's Dict. Vulgar T. (1823) s.v., And thus, without more slum, began..To settle..The rigs of this here tip-top nation. 1822 J. WILSON Noctes Ambros. iv, He may have written some pretty things, but he is taken now to slum, scissorsing, namby pamby, and is quite spoiled. 1823 BEE Dict. Turf s.v., The gipsey language, or cant, is slum. Ibid., Loose, ridiculous talk, is ‘all slum’. ‘None of your slum,’ is said by a girl to a blarneying chap.
Definition (verb): To do (work) hurriedly and carelessly.
Usage:1865 Daily Telegr. 25 Aug., The builders were not men to ‘slum’ or ‘scamp’ their work.
Slumming
1839 Slang Dict. 34 Slumming, passing bad money. 1888 JACOBI Printers' Vocab. 127 Slumming, a slang term used to describe the secreting of type or sorts.
2. a. The visitation of slums, esp. for charitable or philanthropic
purposes.
1884 Chr. World 22 May 391/3, I am not one of those
who have taken to ‘slumming’ as an amusement. 1894 D. C. MURRAY Making
of Novelist 87 Slumming had not become the fashion at that time of day.
b. attrib., as slumming expedition, party.
1884 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 1 Oct. 2/3 The slumming party engaged in conversation audibly. 1888 Cath. Press 18 Aug. 272/3 The Isle of Dogs has recently been the scene of some new slumming expeditions for the ladies.
c. fig. with defining adj. Cf. sense 4b
of the vb.
1933 DYLAN THOMAS Let. (1966) 70 Few understand the
works of Cummings, And few James Joyce's mental slummings. 1958 [see DEMOTIC
a. 2]. 1977 M. DRABBLE Ice Age I. 35 She accused Anthony of
hypocrisy, of intellectual slumming, of folie de grandeur, of brain
fever.
So 
slumming
ppl. a.
1884 Pall Mall G. 17 Mar. 6 One of my recently
acquired slumming friends. 1892 Tablet 30 July 171 Sir Rufus..is
an admirable foil to a slumming Marquis.
Slumminess
Definition: The state of being slummy.
1888 BLACK Adv. Houseboat xxiv, We had encountered
next to nothing of the slumminess that is supposed to be characteristic of
canals. 1926 A. HUXLEY Two or Three Graces 176 It was a slummy
street... It was not hard to know where respectable slumminess ended and gay
Bohemianism began. 1961 Guardian 29 Mar. 9/3 Being overcrowded
does not necessarily imply slumminess.
Slummery
Slums collectively; slumdom.
1892 LD. ROSEBERY in Daily News 16 Dec. 2/4 Cleaning
out the Augean stables of slummery.
Slummer
1. One who visits the slums, esp. from charitable or philanthropic
motives.
1887 Pall Mall G. 29 Sept. 3/2 The risk of giving a
violent shock to literary slummers. 1889 J. HATTON J. L. Toole i.
20 ‘Slumming’ is a modern fashion, but both Irving and Toole were always
slummers. 1894 SALA London up to Date 2 The writer who is
ambitious to become an efficient ‘slummer’.
2. An inhabitant of the slums.
1888 Pall Mall G. 18 Oct. 3 Gaffs, those penny places
of amusement partronized by slummers. 1889 The Voice (N.Y.) 7
Mar., Had this wanton insult come from some shirtless slummer it would have
signified little.
Slumless
Definition: Containing no slums.
1924 Glasgow Herald 8 Mar. 7 The difference between
almost slumless Düsseldorf and slummy Glasgow is not altogether in municipal
policy or school education. 1946 P. BOTTOME Lifeline xxx. 235
Berlin..bustling, self~determined, ordered, slumless. 1966 Guardian
16 May 15/3 Any big-city mayor..can successfully achieve a relatively slumless
city.
Slumberous, slumberous, adj.
1. Inclined to slumber or sleep; unduly given to slumber;
somnolent, lethargic.
1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. XIX. xiii. 872 In theym
whyche doon slepe tomoche, and in slombrous men, the body is pale and
dyscoloured. 1733 P. WHITEHEAD State Dunces 82 At length a
slumbrous Briton clos'd his Eyes. 1826 SCOTT Jrnl. 9 July, Rather
slumbrous to-day from having sat up till twelve last night. 1861 DICKENS Gt.
Expect. vi, My sister clutched me, as a slumberous offence to the company's
eyesight, and assisted me up to bed. 1895 ZANGWILL Master III. xi,
Behind a casement a slumbrous old crone snuffed herself.
b. Of the eyes, or eyelids: Heavy or drooping
with slumber or sleep.
1828 LANDOR Wks. (1876) II. 121 Her eyes, slumberous
with content. 1845 LONGFELLOW Belfry of Bruges, Carillon v,
He..finds his slumbrous eyes Wet with..tears. 1887 HALL CAINE Son of
Hagar I. viii, The man lifted his slumbrous eyelids.
2. Bringing or inducing sleep; soporific.
1667 MILTON P.L. IV. 615 The timely dew of sleep Now falling with
soft slumbrous weight inclines Our eye-lids. 1725 POPE Odyss. II.
444 Ev'ry eye with slumbrous chains she bound. 1751 CAMBRIDGE Scribleriad
v. 30 The senseless chief the slumbrous potion quaft. 1810 SCOTT Lady
of L. I. xxxii, While our slumbrous spells assail ye. 1842 TENNYSON Day-Dream,
Sleeping Beauty i, The slumbrous light is rich and warm. 1887 BOWEN Æneid
IV. 486 Over them moist sweet honeys and slumbrous poppies to pour.
1839 LONGFELLOW Voices of Night Prel. iv, A slumberous sound, a
sound that brings The feelings of a dream. 1850 B. TAYLOR Eldorado
viii. 52 Scarcely a leaf stirred in the slumberous air; and giving way to the
delicate languor [etc.]. 1877 BLACK Green Past. xxxvii, The
continuous, monotonous murmur of sound was soothing, slumberous, dreamlike.
3. Moving very slightly or slowly; lying
quiescent or at rest; calm, still, peaceful.
1765 BEATTIE Judgm. Paris cxv, Faint heaves the
slumberous wave. 1794 W. BLAKE Songs Experience Introd. 15 Morn
Rises from the slumbrous mass. 1833 TENNYSON Lotos-Eaters 13 Some
[streams] thro'..shadows broke, Rolling a slumbrous sheet of foam below. 1858
G. MACDONALD Phantastes xvii, Across a shining, slumberous landscape. 1898
G. F. R. HENDERSON Stonewall Jackson I. 390 The buzzards sailing lazily
above the slumbrous woods.
4. Appropriate to, characterized by,
suggestive of, slumber or sleep.
1818 WORDSW. Pilgrim's Dream 18 The murmur of a
neighbouring stream Induced a soft and slumbrous dream. 1826 SCOTT Jrnl.
12 Mar., I was interrupted by a slumberous feeling which made me obliged to stop
once or twice. 1853 KANE Grinnell Exped. viii. (1856) 59 There was
something about them [icebergs] so slumberous and so pure. 1889 Spectator
9 Nov. 632/1 The slumberous condition in which the mental faculties grow torpid.
5. transf. Marked or characterized by
inactivity, indolence, or sluggishness.
1809 IRVING Knickerb. (1861) 100 The tempestuous times..which
overhang the slumbrous administration of the renowned Wouter Van Twiller. 1885
Contemp. Rev. July 13 The slumbrous reign which gradually became
intolerable to the commonalty.
1876 M. E. BRADDON J. Haggard's Dau. I. 7 The great Anglican
revival has doubtless awakened that slumberous old parish-church into new life
and vigour. 1889 Times 17 Jan. 9/4 The British plantations would
have remained..as slumberous as they have been in the past.
b. Of places, etc.: Quiet, sleepy, tranquil.
1863 HAWTHORNE Old Home (1879) 130 She liked the old
slumberous town. 1869 Daily News 23 Jan., In slumbrous country
towns or quiet country houses people go to bed early and get up early. 1883
American VI. 282 This quiet corner of a sleepy town in a slumberous land.
Works Cited
"Slum."Oxford English Dictionary. Second Edition. 1989
"Slum."The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.Fourth Edition. 2000.
"Slum."Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary.1996.
compiled by Josh Davidson
April 28, 2002
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