slum
[sluhm]
- Often slums. a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people.
- any squalid, run-down place to live.
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- to visit slums, especially from curiosity.
- to visit or frequent a place, group, or amusement spot considered to be low in social status.
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Origin of slum
1805–15; compare earlier argot slum room; origin obscure
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
slum
- a squalid overcrowded house, etc
- (often plural) a squalid section of a city, characterized by inferior living conditions and usually by overcrowding
- (modifier) of, relating to, or characteristic of slumsslum conditions
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- to visit slums, esp for curiosity
- Also: slum it to suffer conditions below those to which one is accustomed
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Word Origin
C19: originally slang, of obscure origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for slummer
slum
n.
1845, from back slum "dirty back alley of a city, street of poor or low people" (1825), originally a slang or cant word meaning "room," especially "back room" (1812), of unknown origin, pastime popularized by East End novels. Related: slums. Slumscape is from 1947.
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slum
v.
"visit slums of a city," especially for diversion or amusement, often under guise of philanthropy, 1884, from slum (n.). Pastime popularized by East End novels. Earlier it meant to visit slums for disreputable purposes or in search of vice (1860). Related: Slumming.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper