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Origin and history of sleek

sleek(adj.)

"smooth, glossy, soft" (of body parts, hair, skin, etc.), by 1580s, a variant of Middle English slike "sleek, smooth" (see slick (adj.)). Originally of healthy-looking animal hair (Shakespeare, of Bottom with his ass's head); applied to persons 1630s, with a sense of "plump and smooth-skinned." The figurative meaning in reference to persons or personalities, "slick, fawning, flattering," is from 1590s.

The form slick is related to sleek much as crick (n.2) is related to creek (n.), but is in fact the more orig. form, until recently in good literary use, and still common in colloquial use (the word being often so pronounced even though spelled sleek), but now regarded by many as somewhat provincial ... [Century Dictionary, 1895]

also from 1580s

sleek(v.)

"make smooth and glossy on the surface," mid-15c., sleken, a variant of slick (v.), glossing Latin licibricinnulo; also see sleek (adj.). Related: Sleeked; sleeking. Alternative sleeken is by 1620s.

also from mid-15c.

Entries linking to sleek

creek(n.)

mid-15c., creke "narrow inlet in a coastline," altered from kryk (early 13c.; in place names from 12c.), probably from Old Norse kriki "corner, nook," perhaps influenced by Anglo-French crique, itself from a Scandinavian source via Norman. Perhaps ultimately related to crook and with an original notion of "full of bends and turns" (compare dialectal Swedish krik "corner, bend; creek, cove").

Extended to "inlet or short arm of a river" by 1570s, which probably led to use for "small stream, brook" in American English (1620s). In U.S. commonly pronounced and formerly sometimes spelled crick. Also used there and in Canada, Australia, New Zealand for "branch of a main river," possibly from explorers moving up main rivers and seeing and noting mouths of tributaries without knowing they often were extensive rivers of their own.

Slang phrase up the creek "in trouble" (often especially "pregnant") is attested by 1941, perhaps originally armed forces slang for "lost while on patrol," or perhaps a cleaned-up version of the older up shit creek in the same sense (for which see shit (n.)).

crick(n.1)

"painful cramping and stiffness in some part of the body (especially of the neck) making motion difficult," early 15c., of uncertain origin; OED [2nd. ed. print, 1989] says "probably onomatopœic." The Middle English Compendium points to Scandinavian cognates meaning "corner, bend."

slick(v.)

Middle English sliken "to smooth, polish," from Old English -slician (in nigslicod "newly made sleek"), from Proto-Germanic *slikojan, from *slikaz "sleek, smooth" (source also of Old Norse slikr "smooth," Old High German slihhan "to glide," German schleichen "to creep, crawl, sneak," Dutch slijk "mud, mire"). This is reconstructed to be from PIE *sleig- "to smooth, glide, be muddy, spread," from root *(s)lei- "slimy" (see slime (n.)). Related: Slicked; slicking.