WordWacky

I happened across a plea for the etymology of the word sidle in someone’s blog. Happy to oblige.

[Editor's Note: Did you know that your Seattle Public Library card grants you access to the online OED? Callou callay!]

si·dle

–verb (used without object) 1. to move sideways or obliquely. 
2. to edge along furtively.
–noun 3. a sidling movement.

In the 1300s the word is first seen, in one of those strange Middle English spellings (with some unsupported symbols omitted): “yf any connyng man of o Stande stille, or sidlyng can go”

Obviously the word is related to “side,” first used to mean “either of the two lateral surfaces or parts of the trunk in persons or animals, extending between the shoulders and the hips; the corresponding part in fishes, reptiles, etc.” around 725 AD.

The first known mention in its modern spelling was by Sir John Vanbrugh, way back in 1697:

A crab-fish once her daughter told..She could not bear to see her go, Sidle, sidle, to and fro.

However, the word continues to enjoy two spellings for awhile. Sir Thomas Browne, 1646: “Crabs move sideling, Lobsters will swim swiftly backward.” Samuel Parker, 1702: “If all his Atoms must descend Sideling, they’ll never join one another.”

There were a few more literal mentions of the word until in 1765 when Lawrence Sterne said in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, “Ever and anon straddling out, or sidling into some..digression.” Here we see the word begin to transform to its more figurative meaning, “to edge along furtively.”

What is it about the side that implies secrecy?

side·ways

–adverb 1. with a side foremost. 
2. facing to the side. 
3. toward or from one side. 
4. with a deceitful, scornful, disparaging, or amorous glance.
 
–adjective 5. moving, facing, or directed toward one side. 
6. indirect or evasive.

a·side

–noun 6. a part of an actor’s lines supposedly not heard by others on the stage and intended only for the audience. 
7. words spoken so as not to be heard by others present. 

I think that the derivation of side as surreptitious is obvious — things to the side of you are more difficult to see. People who sidle up to you are not facing you directly, so their intention is suspect.

So there you have it: sidle.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 6:23 am and is filed under etymology, words. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.