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Noun
And, since January is all about staying cozy, pick up a new pair of slippers or a plush blanket to use during chilly mornings and relaxed evenings at home.—Nicol Natale, PEOPLE, 28 Dec. 2025 In a series of Stories on Instagram, the French brand recalled how Bardot, then a young dancer, walked into founder Rose Repetto’s workshop in 1956 and asked her to design a city shoe as light as a ballet slipper.—Joelle Diderich, Footwear News, 28 Dec. 2025 Visitors can see everything from the original Star-Spangled Banner and the Greensboro Woolworth’s lunch counter (which became a powerful symbol of the Civil Rights Movement,) to Dorothy’s ruby slippers, and innovations that span early steam engines to modern computing.—Lauren Dana Ellman, Travel + Leisure, 27 Dec. 2025 In an effort to fit into the slipper that her stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) left at the ball, Elvira severs the toes from her right foot.—Andrew McGowan, Variety, 23 Dec. 2025 See All Example Sentences for slipper
Word History
Etymology
Adjective
Middle English slipir, sliper "causing something to slide or slip, deceitful," going back to Old English slipor, sliper, going back to Germanic *slip-ra- (whence also Old High German sleffar "sloping downward"), adjective derivative from the base of Germanic *sleipan- (strong verb) "to slide, slip" (whence Middle Dutch slīpen "to smooth, polish, sharpen," Middle Low German, "to glide, sink, slip," Old High German slīfan "to slide, pass away, decline"), of uncertain origin
Note:
The adjective slipper has been effectively replaced by its derivative slippery, though the former was in existence in dialect late enough to be noticed by the Survey of English Dialects, which recorded it in Devon and Cornwall (see Survey of English Dialects: The Dictionary and Grammar, Routledge, 1994, s.v.). — The Germanic verb has been compared with Greek olibrón, glossed by Hesychius with olisthērón "slippery," though the assumption of an Indo-European etymon *h3slib-ro-, with both *b and a laryngeal preceding a sibilant, seems questionable. Parallel to *sleipan- is a verb *sleupan- "to creep, glide," which has been explained as a secondary formation based on near-synonymous *sleuban- (see slip entry 5, sleeve). As all these bases are ultimately of phonesthemic origin and can presumably be reshaped by variation of phonesthemic origin, it is difficult to disentangle inheritance from innovation. Compare slip entry 1.
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