slim

Signification (Anglais)

Adj

1. Slender, thin.
2. Slender, thin.
3. Slender, thin.
4. Slender, thin.
5. Very small, tiny.
6. Bad, of questionable quality; not strongly built, flimsy.
7. (obsolete) Sly, crafty.

Noun

1. A type of cigarette substantially longer and thinner than normal cigarettes.
2. A potato farl.
3. AIDS, or the chronic wasting associated with its later stages.
4. (slang) Cocaine.

Verb

1. To lose weight in order to achieve slimness.
2. To make slimmer; to reduce in size.

Concepts

mince

maigrir

mincir

svelte

élancé

dégraisser

amaigrir

amincir

fin

perdre du poids

maigre

délicat

subtil

s’amaigrir

insignifiant

léger

menu

se maigrir

petit

retors

rusé

étriqué

étroit

dégingandé

grand et maigre

décrocher

Prononcé comme (IPA)

/slɪm/

Étymologie (Anglais)

Borrowing from Low German or Dutch slim (“bad, sly, clever”), from Middle Dutch slim (“bad, crooked”), from Old Dutch *slimb, from Proto-West Germanic *slimb, from Proto-Germanic *slimbaz (“oblique, crooked”). The sense development would have been "slanting, cunning" (Dutch) > "insignificant, slight" and then "thin, graceful" in English, a shift that Liberman calls an "incredible amelioration" of word meaning.
The pejorative sense found in Low German and Dutch is also found preserved in the archaic English noun slim (“worthless or lazy person”), also comparable to the South African use of the adjective as "crafty, sly."
Compare Dutch slim (“smart, clever, crafty”), Middle High German slimp (“slanting, awry”), German schlimm (“bad”), West Frisian slim (“bad, dire”).