The word "slut" gets thrown around a lot these days, doesn't it?

Mostly, it's launched with vitriol towards women who behave like men — women who (gasp) feel empowered by their own sexuality.

Yet, while the term is no more than a puny four-letter word, the consequences of it can be dire.

Take the example of the 2014 shooting in Santa Barbara where 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed seven people. Beforehand, he promised to “slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up blonde slut”— all while lamenting that those very same “sluts” refused to have sex with him.

That's a clear-and-present example of slut-shaming, the verb component of the word "slut." It's the practice of calling out women who commit the grave offense of being desireable, yet exercising their right to say no … or their right to be intimate with (gasp again) who they want.

What do we call these women who like to have sex, yet sometimes don't want to have sex with you?

Sluts.

Shit hurts.

But, guess what sluts of the earth?

The word "slut" has no real meaning. Linguistically speaking, the origins of the word are so vast and amorphous that it could mean literally anything. Over the course the six hundred years it's been in use, it has referred to everything from men to dogs to light fixtures. It has meant "messy," a "hard piece of bread,"  and, in one instance at least, "cute." It has been a noun, a verb, and an adjective.

Why does this matter? Because to some people, the word cuts like a knife. The way it's used today, it can end relationships, send study participants crying from a room, and even lead to suicide.

But, it doesn't have to. Words can be harsh, but they can also mean what you make them mean. And this particular word? It's got so many meanings that its present connotation is much more dilute and ineffective than we know.

The first-ever recorded example of the word "slut" appeared in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. In the prologue to the “Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale," he writes, “Why is thy lord so sluttish …”

Taken out of context, that sentence is hilarious. But framed by the story itself and the 14th century in which it was written, "slut" was actually used to refer to none other than a distinguished man. Not a sexually expressive  distinguished man though — a man who is at odds with his rank due to his ill-groomed appearance.

However, while the word had a clear definition in Canterbury Tales, it didn't in dictionaries for some time.

By the time "slut" made it into a dictionary in 1402, it had come to mean “a woman of dirty, slovenly, or untidy habits or appearance; a foul slattern.” But, although the term had by then switched genders, it still had no sexual meaning. A "slut" was just an unkempt lady. 

Once it officially became a word, "slut" continued to be utilized non-sexually in literature. In the Anatomy of Melancholy (1651), Sir Thomas Burton mentions “a peevish drunken flirt, a waspish choleric slut.”

Damn — shots fired, but in the context of the book, it's unclear whether he's insulting her … or just her questionable housekeeping.

After that, "slut" went through multiple centuries of random transmutations in which it was taken to signify a variety of trite, everyday nouns that had nothing to do with dirt or women.

In the mid-17th century, diarist Samuel Pepys lovingly wrote, “Our little girl Susan is a most admirable slut, and pleases us mightily.”

Ha ha, but Susan was a dog.

One hundred year later, a "slut" was a particularly raggedy piece of bread. In England and Ireland, it was a janky lamp made from a cloth dipped in blubber.

It wasn't until a century after little slutty Susan that the word became a derogatory term specifically meant for women.

In Samuel Johnson's first dictionary, he defined a slut as “a dirty woman” and also noted that it was a word “of slight contempt.” In that example, "dirty," meant more covered in soot than semen, but it's the first known example of "slut" transforming from adjective to insult.

Not until the modern age did we connote "slut" with sex. In the last century, we've ditched the meager historical definitions of "slut," and replaced them with something meant to tear others — specifically women — down.

Dictionary.com defines slut as "a sexually promiscuous woman," and, if you type the word into the Google search bar, the very first thing that comes up is "slut (noun): a woman who has many casual sex partners."

… Not a man who has many casual sex partners. Not a dog who gets around. And certainly not a particularly horny bread crumb, a lamp or a bad housekeeper.

Many minds have realized that the contemporary definition of "slut" is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to control women and what they do with their bodies in a society still recovering from puritanism. In an article entitled "There's no such thing as a slut," The Atlantic's Olga Khazan wrote,"'Slut' is simply a misogynistic catch-all, a verbal utility knife that young people use to control women and create hierarchies."

This is something Leora Tanenbaum, author of I Am NOT a Slut: Slut Shaming in the Age of the Internet, thinks this transition from "cute dog" to "woman who has 'too much sex' (whatever that is)" is extremely dangerous. In an interview with The Daily Beast, she said: “I’m not trying to censor language. But at the same time I’m concerned. I look around campus and every single day we have a new report of an act of sexual assault on a college campus, and that gives me pause. The fact is that most people don’t use words like ‘slut’ and ‘ho’ the way we in the feminist in-group use it. So I’m asking people to think about what these words mean and how they can be used to shame other people.”

So, yeah. Let's take a cue from her and actually think about meaning.

Slang like "slut" is hairy territory for etymologists due to how differently things are written down and spoken, but, the linguistic history of this particular word is clutch because it exposes just how subjective and transient the meanings of words can be. One minute, a "slut" is some bread. The next, it's what sorority sisters are calling Jennifer after Spring Formal.

Which definition is right? Neither.

Which matters more? Fuck if we know — that's up to you. It's a personal choice you can make.

At least knowing its origin — at least for us — dilutes the vitriolic, intentionally harmful definition it has today. 

TL;DR: words can literally mean anything you want them to. "Slut" means a lot of things other than what it feels like they do. It's up to you how much weight and meaning you want to assign it.

So go ahead: call us a slut. To us, it's a cute dog.

We welcome the comparison.