sleaze

sleaze
\ \ [20] It is common practice to name fabrics after their place of manufacture, and from the 17th century that applied to cloth made in Silesia (a region in east-central Europe, now mainly within Poland), and in particular to a type of fine linen or cotton. It did not take long for Silesia to be worn down to Slesia or Sleasia and finally to Sleasie. Also in the 17th century we find sleasie being applied as an adjective to fabrics that are thin or flimsy, and although a connection between the two usages has never been proved, the closeness of meaning seems unlikely to be coincidental. Soon sleasie (or sleazy) was being used metaphorically for ‘slight, flimsy, insubstantial’. It took a sudden sideways semantic leap in the 1930s and 40s when it began to be used as a term of moral disapproval, denoting squalor, depravity or slatternliness, and it was in this sense that the back-formed noun sleaze first emerged in the 1960s. Then in the 1980s the word shifted its target from sex to financially motivated misdemeanours, notably the taking of bribes (the new usage is first recorded in ‘The sleaze factor’, a chapter heading in the book Gambling with History (1983) by the US journalist Laurence Barrett).

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • sleaze — [sliːz] noun [uncountable] immoral behaviour, especially involving money or sex: • The government created a standing committee to investigate allegations of sleaze. sleazy adjective : • sleazy dealings with cash payments in brown envelopes * * *… …   Financial and business terms

  • sleaze — [sli:z] n [Date: 1900 2000; Origin: sleazy] 1.) [U] immoral behaviour, especially involving sex or lies ▪ Many people are tired of all the sleaze on TV. ▪ sleaze and corruption in politics 2.) also sleazebag sleazebucket …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • sleaze — [ sliz ] noun 1. ) uncount behavior that is dishonest or immoral, especially in politics or business: political sleaze The party is facing sleaze allegations. 2. ) count OFFENSIVE a SLEAZEBAG …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • sleaze — sleaze; sleaze·bag; …   English syllables

  • sleaze — condition of squalor, by 1967, back formation from SLEAZY (Cf. sleazy). Meaning person of low moral standards, and the adjective use, are attested from 1976 …   Etymology dictionary

  • sleaze — informal ► NOUN 1) immoral, sordid, and corrupt behaviour or material. 2) informal, chiefly N. Amer. a sordid, corrupt, or immoral person. ► VERB ▪ behave in an immoral, corrupt, or sordid way …   English terms dictionary

  • sleaze — [slēz] n. [back form. < SLEAZY] Slang 1. the quality or condition of being sleazy; sleaziness 2. anything cheap, vulgar, shoddy, etc. 3. a shady, coarse, or immoral person: also sleazebag [slēzē′bag΄] or sleazeball [slēzē′bôl΄] …   English World dictionary

  • sleaze — [[t]sli͟ːz[/t]] N UNCOUNT (disapproval) You use sleaze to describe activities that you consider immoral, dishonest, or not respectable, especially in politics, business, journalism, or entertainment. [INFORMAL] She claimed that an atmosphere of… …   English dictionary

  • sleaze — UK [sliːz] / US [slɪz] noun [uncountable] Word forms sleaze : singular sleaze plural sleazes behaviour that is dishonest or immoral, especially in politics or business political sleaze The party is facing sleaze allegations …   English dictionary

  • sleaze — AND sleez [sliz] 1. n. a low and despicable person. □ God, what a sleaze! How can anybody be so skanky? □ Youd expect to find a sleaze like that in a sleaz oid joint like this. 2. n. any junk. □ I won’t sell sleez like that! I won’t even have it… …   Dictionary of American slang and colloquial expressions

  • sleaze — noun a) low moral standards ministerial sleaze and mendacity b) a person with low moral standards The level of sleaze in this city seems to have been rising rapidly in recent years. See Also: sleazebag, sleaze merchant, sleazy …   Wiktionary

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