Dear all
Following from my enquiry about derivation of the word "slum", I had a
number of interesting responses.
Most dictionary definitions seemed to imply that the word is a either of
slang origin or are less specific than this. Duncan Mara from the University
of Leeds provided the following information :
1. The OED, vol. 15 says "of cant origin"
2. Klein's comparative etymological dict. of the Eng. language (Elsevier,
1967) says "of uncertain origin";
3. Partridge's short etymological dict. of the Eng. language (Routledge
andKegan Paul, 1966) says "of obscure origin"; and
4. Webster's new international dictionary, 2nd ed. (1936) says "origin
uncertain".
Brian Read from WEDC passed on the information about from Oxford in the
1820's which states that the word "slum" derives from the older "slump,"
meaning a wet mire and Alan Smith in Ontario referred Peter Ackroyd's
"London - the Biography" which states that the word is derived from
'slough', which is still in common use in North America, and is used to
describe a low depression in prairie land which is generally very muddy, wet
or flooded.
I have attached the information that they sent to me as I think that it is
of interest to the urban-drainage community
regards and best wishes
Jonathan Parkinson
GHK International
526 Fulham Road
London SW6 5NR
Tel: +44 (0)20 7736 8212
Fax :+44 (0)20 7471 8050
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http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/technology/porter13.html
Oxford at 1850
Dale H. Porter, Professor of History and Humanities, Western Michican
University
Oxford, in 1850, was the largest town on the upper Thames, with a population
of about 25,000. Already the railway and gasworks along the river were
spoiling the view of ancient Oxford Castle. The town's residential water
supply was piped, by a private company, from a nearby artificial lake to
many of the wealthier citizens. Workers and the indigent tended to move
around too much to keep up water service. They lived mostly in the lower,
marshy ground where the River Cherwell ran down to the Thames from the
north, and where factories and workshops were situated. (The word "slum,"
first used in the 1820s, derives from the older "slump," meaning a wet
mire.) Like most cities of its time, Oxford was only partly sewered.
Working-class districts were usually difficult to drain. In any case, the
poor were not trusted to maintain the water closets, which were company
owned. They made do with neighborhood privies and leaking cesspits that
contaminated the surrounding soil. But the household sewage from higher up
was discharged through outfalls, some within the municipal boundaries, and
factories poured their wastes directly into the river. Mill owners who
required clean water for processing fabrics joined the chorus of complaints
raised by university dons and landowners with fishing rights. Scientists
testified that Oxford's sewage ought to be fully diluted and oxidized before
it reached London, but this hypothesis, even if correct, was no comfort to
the 800,000 inhabitants of the towns in between.
This passage has been excerpted from Dale H. Porter, The Thames Embankment:
Environment, Technology, and Society in Victorian London. Akron, Ohio:
University of Akron Press, 1998, which is reviewed eleswhere in the
Victorian Web GPL.
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Dear Jonathan,
By coincidence I just finished reading Chapter 12 of Peter Ackroyd's
"London - the Biography" which describes the parish of St.Giles now bounded
roughly by Charing Cross Rd., New Oxford Street and Shaftesbury Ave. From
early in the 12th century this marshy area was used to build a hospital for
lepers along with a chapel dedicated to St.Giles, the patron saint of
lepers. Over the next several hundred years it degenerated into one of the
worst slums of the London area described by Ackroyd in the most graphic
terms. However, the name given to such areas t that time seems to have
been 'rookeries' so this may be another source to explore.
It seems that such depressed areas were generally very wet and a sink for
natural drainage which under crowded urban conditions gave rise to the most
miserable of living conditions, so the link with low-lying ground appears
to be valid. In that connection, the word 'slough' (pronounced as 'oo' in
boot) is still in common use in North America to describe a low depression
in prairie land which is generally very muddy, wet or flooded. Given the
European origins of many prairie settlers it is possible this term came
from Scandinavian origins as you have heard.
Another etymological clue may come from the fact that (according to
Ackroyd) in the 16th and 17th centuries St.Giles became home (if the word
can even be used) to large numbers of "poore plundered Irish" expelled from
the City of London for vagrancy. Now my dictionary also mentions an Irish
word "sluagh" pronounced as 'slew' and which appears to have the meaning of
a large crowd of people.
These observations are very weak and tentative and I hope your posted
enquiry may turn up something more positive. I will watch developments
with interest.
Regards
Alan A. Smith
Dundas, Ontario
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