Etymograph

English

slake

Slake comes from Middle English slaken ‘to render slack, to slake’, from Proto-West Germanic *slak ‘weak’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *slakaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slakaz1‘weak’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*slak1‘weak’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150slæc2‘slack’
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sleacian2
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slaken2‘to render slack, to slake’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1485slake2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old English slæc
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English slake
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Primum: “wherfor the quene waxed wroth with sir Launcelot /…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slakazWiktionary, Old English slæc‘weak’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*slakWiktionary, Old English slæc‘weak’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150slæcWiktionary, English slake‘slack’
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sleacianWiktionary, English slake
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slakenWiktionary, English slake‘to render slack, to slake’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1485slakeWiktionary, English slake. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Primum: “wherfor the quene waxed wroth with sir Launcelot /…”

The story

Unrelated to, but possibly influenced by, the Old Norse sløkkva (‘to extinguish’), compare Swedish släcka in the phrase släcka sin törst (‘quench one's thirst’), släcka elden (‘put out the fire’), and släckt kalk (‘slaked lime’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)leg- ‘to tire out, slacken’

release, relaxation, relish, languish, languid

through Proto-Germanic *slakaz ‘weak’

sludge, slouch

through Old English slæc ‘slack’

slack

Another origin of slake

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leyǵʰ-‘to lick’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slikkōnąuncertain
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*slikkōnuncertain
  4. Old High Germanc. 750–1050*slikkonuncertain
  5. Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350sleckenuncertain
  6. Germanc. 1650–presentschlecken‘to lick’uncertain
  7. Englishtodayslake

Probably connected with Icelandic sleikja, "to lick", and German schlecken (‘to lick’).

Today it means

verb To satisfy (thirst, or other desires).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “slake”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old English slæc. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *slakaz / slake

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