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Noun
Expanding the offering, in recent years Viberg has included suede sneakers, slippers, and casual styles into the collection, but still anchored by their beloved boots.—Felicity Carter, Forbes.com, 1 June 2025 Delta One passengers will receive custom bedding, collectible amenity kits, and slippers in Missoni's signature zigzag print.—Katie Nadworny, Travel + Leisure, 29 May 2025 This year, their collaboration will launch a luxurious Delta One collection, which includes a Missoni bedding set designed for Delta, along with Missoni’s suite of amenities that include a refreshed Delta One amenity kit, custom socks, slippers and an eye mask.—Lisa Lockwood, Footwear News, 20 May 2025 Luxury skincare, 27-inch seatback screens and hoodie-pajamas and slippers are among the other amenities for the Studio suites.—Aaron Cooper, CNN Money, 13 May 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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