Word of the Day

: March 19, 2008

slapdash

adjective SLAP-dash

What It Means

: haphazard, slipshod

slapdash in Context

Brett was sharply reprimanded for his slapdash reporting after he submitted a story that omitted some important facts to his editor at the newspaper.

Did You Know?

The first known use of "slapdash" in English came in 1679 from the British poet and dramatist John Dryden, who used it as an adverb in his play The kind keeper; or Mr. Limberham: "Down I put the notes slap-dash." The Oxford English Dictionary defines this sense in part as "[w]ith, or as with, a slap and a dash," perhaps suggesting the notion of an action (such as painting) performed with quick, imprecise movements. Over 100 years later, the word acquired the adjectival sense with which we are more familiar today, describing something done in a hasty, careless, or haphazard manner.