Slight
/slaɪt/noun
Small in amount, degree, or importance; or lacking in respect.
Did you know?In older English, related forms of *slight* could describe someone as sleek, crafty, or artfully deceitful, so the word once lived much closer to trickery than to “smallness.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*slihtaz
“smooth, level, slight”
Old English
OE
sliht
“smooth, level, even; crafty, cunning”
Middle English
ME
slight
“smooth; slender; small; also contemptible or trifling”
16th-17th Century
English
slight
“slender, little; also disrespectful or of little account”
Modern English
English
slight
“small in amount or degree; lacking in respect”