slide
Definitions
General English
Aviation
- noun a device which allows continuous movement over a smooth surface
- verb to move continuously over a smooth surface
Computing
Electronics
- To move smoothly over a surface while maintaining continuous contact, as with sliding contacts. Also called wipe.
Information & Library Science
- noun a picture on positive transparent photographic film mounted in a frame
- noun an individual computer screen which can be produced as output in different formats
Media Studies
- noun a small piece of film that carries a positive photograph that can be viewed by projection on a screen or through a magnifying device
Medical
- noun a piece of glass, on which a tissue sample is placed, to be examined under a microscope
Slang
- verb to leave, depart. A vogue term, like jam, jet, bail, etc., probably originating among street gangs and subsequently in use among adolescents on high-school and college campuses.
Travel
- noun a slippery surface on ice
Origin & History of “slide”
Slide comes from a prehistoric Germanic *slīd- ‘slide, slip’, which also produced English sled, sledge, sleigh, and slither (OE). Its ultimate source was the Indo-European base *slei- or *lei-, a prolific source of words for ‘slide’. A version with -dh- on the end lies behind slide, and is also responsible for Greek olisthánein, Lithuanian slysti, Latvian slīdēt, and probably Welsh llithro ‘slide’. A version suffixed -b- produced English slip, and one ending in -g- has spread throughout the Slavic languages, giving Russian skol’zit’, Czech klouznouti, etc, all meaning ‘slide’.
