Responding to our conversation about the word chat, meaning “the gravelly residue of mines,” Isabella from Marquette, Michigan, reports that where she lives, in the state’s Upper Peninsula, such runoff is commonly called slag. She uses some made-up terms for odd-looking rocks, including space potatoes for those with many small holes, and slagates, a variety of slag combined with agate. She’s curious about the British use of slag in insults such as he’s a slag or someone’s slagging off. The story of slag is complex: It’s an etymological relative of slay, meaning “to kill,” both words going back to a Germanic root having to do with hammering and forging, or in other words beating something forcefully. Slag may also be related to the sledge- in sledgehammer and the slaught- in slaughter. In British slang, slag may refer to a person of loose morals, usually a woman, an idea that may stem from the sense of slag as “rubbish,” although in Scotland slag refers to someone heavy or clumsy. To slag someone off, meaning “to denigrate or insult” them, may be related to a Scandinavian term involving the idea of drenching. For all this information, Isabella offers a heartfelt Miigwech!, which means “Thank you!” in Anishinaabe, an indigenous language of Michigan’s UP. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Mining Slang, Person Slag, and Slagging Off”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, Martha. Hi, Grant. I’m very excited to be on with you guys. My name is Isabella, and I’m calling from Marquette, Michigan.
Okay, welcome. Welcome from Marquette.
Glad to have you. What’s up?
What’s on your mind today?
Oh, well, I’ve actually been a listener for a long time. I was listening to an old episode. I think it was called Naked as a Jaybird, in which a woman from the South describes the word chat, and she’s referring to mining runoff that kind of turns into gravel and little rocks.
And I just kind of perked up when I heard that because I was like, that’s not what we call it. Up here, we call that slag.
And slag is usually just odd-looking rocks. Usually, if you’re walking along Lake Superior and you’re looking at different rocks, you’ll notice some really odd shaped ones. Some of them are either really full of holes or they’re like a suspicious green color.
Or sometimes you’ll think you found an agate and you’ll look at the quartz banding and it’s all kind of jagged and it looks like two rocks like fused together. So I call those slaggates.
Nice.
And if you go further up the Keweenaw, usually you find these bigger rocks that are definitely slag. They kind of have holes in them and almost looks like eyes all over them.
So I call those space potatoes. I don’t know if anyone else uses that, but it’s a lovely term.
Yeah, just a few people probably. Space potato.
And so am I hearing a question there or you just wanted to share your new words?
Oh, well, I do have a question because the only other time I’ve actually heard the word slag was, I think, in like a British show or movie or something where it was kind of used as like an insult or something like he’s a slag or slagging off.
And I never really thought about it before. So I was just wondering, what’s the etymology and origin of that word? And how did it come into where I live in the UP to refer to like mining runoff rocks?
Yeah, it’s a bit of a mess just because the word slag in its various forms is so old. And also its form is so simple. It’s such a simple word.
And when these two things happen, we tend to find a lot of crossed wires and overlapping paths. And it’s not necessarily a clear story.
But it does seem that slag, interestingly, is related to the word slay, S-L-A-Y, in the sense of kill, because they share a common Germanic root having to do with hammering and forging, that is, taking tools and beating something.
You know, slag comes from mining and smelting and forging where there’s a lot of beating of metals. And actually, slag may be related to the sledge in sledgehammer and the slot, S-L-A-U-G-H-T, in slaughter and onslaught.
But again, not necessarily 100% clear, but it looks like it. And of course, there are a ton of language change processes that happen over many centuries.
But it does go back really before English was English. And there’s an early transformation of the early form of the word where it goes from the idea of hitting to the sparks or pieces that fly off when you’re hitting, like when you’re hitting metal.
And so we see that slag’s meaning has adjusted related to, again, forging and mining and smelting a lot over the many centuries. It’s not always been one thing.
Oh, yeah. I was thinking of the word slough off and slack, kind of like the idea of things sliding down the mining shaft. But it sounds like it’s more about the striking part of it.
I think both of those are etymologically unrelated. But interestingly, so you mentioned the British slag, one which is an insult usually for a woman of saying that she has low sexual morals.
It may be related because slag is a type of rubbish or waste, and that is the kind of thing that you might say about somebody that you didn’t respect. But on the other hand, there’s a Scots slag that means a clumsy person or thing or a heavy person, and that actually could be the origin.
The other thing you mentioned, to slag someone off, it means to denigrate or insult them. That’s also not used really in North America. But its origins, as murky as they are, may be related to some Scandinavian language having to do with drenching.
That is, even a heavy swell at sea, there’s negatives that could indicate that somebody is being abused by an onslaught of some force and power.
Oh, interesting.
So you work in the mining industry or just know it because you live up there?
No, I just know it because there’s a lot of history of copper and iron mining in the UP, the upper peninsula of Michigan, in case anyone didn’t know. I think there still is.
Actually, I have a regular correspondent, Luke, who’s an electrician for a mining company, who texts me every time the show is on the air there. So, hi, Luke.
I’m sure a lot of them listen to it during work. You take care now, right?
Yeah, thanks so much for having me on, guys. I really appreciate the show. So a big miigwech to you, which is Anishinaabe for thank you.
Oh, it’s our pleasure. We appreciate it.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Yep, bye-bye.
Thank you.
Bye.
