adj.
'unwary'
(Modern English )Formed on sleʒe, and cp. OIcel óslœgr ‘unsly’.
PGmc Ancestor
*slōg-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
slœgr ‘sly, cunning’; cp. óslœgr ‘unsly’
(ONP cp. ó-slǿgr (adj.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Icel slægur, Norw sløg, ODan sløv, MSw slögher, Sw dial sløg
OE Cognate
cp. slēan (v.) 'to strike, beat, stamp, coin (money), forge (weapons)'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
C1
A handful of ME attestations from a1300 Sayings St.Bede (Jes-O 29) onwards.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 1209
Emerson (1922: 391) suggests that Gaw 1562 vncely is another example of this word, meaning ‘uncunning, artless’, but all editors take it as a form of OE unsǣlig.