Slick

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Jeff Russell from Greenwood, Indiana.

Hey, Jeff.

Hi, Jeff. Welcome to the program.

Thanks. I had kind of a question that my 20-year-old daughters, I have twin daughters, were teasing me about this last week.

Okay.

A phrase that I use is, that I don’t even realize I use, is I will say something as slick when I mean that it is great or good.

Mm—

Mm—

And they said, where does it come from?

And, of course, I had no answer for them.

So I was just curious.

Oh, you didn’t make one up?

No, I didn’t make it up.

They’re 20. They’re not gullible anymore.

Right, right.

You know, it’s not like I use Groovy a lot.

So you call good things slick, and you don’t mean it in a negative way.

Because I might call something slick, and I would mean that it was shiny on the outside but rotten to the core, maybe.

Right, right.

Yeah, a little wily.

Yeah, something who’s slick is just a little…

A little greasy.

Yeah, greasy, trying to get by with something, right?

-huh.

So they’re 20, and how old are you, Jeff, if you don’t mind me asking?

I am 52.

52, okay.

Slick, I have slick in my vocabulary, but I have both, Martha.

I have both the negative and the positive uses of slick.

Yeah, more and more I guess I have the negative, like slick willy, you know?

A little bit too…

Yeah, exactly, just a little too…

What are we looking for?

Just weaselly, right?

Yeah, but then I’m pretty young.

But the interesting thing about slick is that it’s got a much longer history with these non-literal uses than you might expect, Jeff.

Oh, really?

Because one of my daughters made the comment is it like slicked back hair, like it was cool during the 50s, you know, something like that.

Here’s the thing.

It’s hundreds of years old.

Really?

Yeah.

It’s changed over the years, but these non-literal uses of slick they don’t actually mean smooth to the touch or slippery to the touch.

For example, the Oxford English Dictionary, which, of course, is the go-to source when you really want the deep history on something unless you have to do the work yourself, which we are happy to do.

But in this particular case, they have a great entry on this, so no extra work is required.

And they have a citation from 1599.

Let’s just call it 1600.

Smooth and plausible.

So it means sleek.

All right. So that’s a little different than slick, right? So it’s the idea that you tell me something and it’s so kind of acceptable to me that it’s slick. And that’s positive, right? That’s positive. A little bit later, it starts to develop a little bit more and we get variations where it means adroit or deft, quick, smart, skillful in action or execution.

Okay. I can kind of see that. Slick meaning, you know, just working just right.

Just like doing the right, you know, he’s a slick ball player. You could just see that, right?

And then we get to the meaning that’s more in line with what you’re talking about, except it hasn’t turned negative yet. First class, excellent, neat, in good order, smart, efficient, operating smoothly, superficially attractive, glibly clever. And it’s that last part where we start to see in the 1830s or so, slick kind of flip the switch, right? And it goes from generally being positive to generally being negative with some residue of the positive left around. So you can actually have a slick operation and have it both be an insult and a compliment. -huh. That’s very interesting.

So it’s a long history. So you can tell your daughters that you are in tuned with the history of the English language by using slick. And it’s not something from the corrupt days of your youth.

Yeah, right. It goes way back before you were slicking your hair back. Right, right.

When you were wearing your zoot suit and riding around on your scooter or whatever it was.

Exactly. A little before my time. Yeah, yeah, it was. I grant that. In any case, so now we have the modern day slick and it’s still going strong and you should tell your daughters that as well.

They may not use it, but there are plenty of 20 and 30 year olds who might know slick and use it unironically without any kind of awareness at all that it might be dated.

Yeah. So put them, put them in the car, take them on a drive to Chicago, and tell them all about it.

Sounds like just a trip to them.

They’re running.

Well, Jeff, thanks for calling today. Glad to help.

Hey, thanks for the answer.

Give us a call sometime if you have another one.

All right, great. Thank you very much.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

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