slim, adjective

/sləm/
Forms:
Also slimme.
Origin:
DutchShow more Dutch, clever; wily.
usually derogatory
Note:
Introduced from Dutch into British English during the 17th century, and during the 19th century reinforced by South African English usage.
1. Clever, shrewd; sly, cunning, crafty, underhand, wily.
Derivatives:
So also the comparative forms slimmer, slimmest.
[1806 J. Barrow Trav. II. 100A man, who in his dealings can cheat his neighbour, is considered as a slim mensch, a clever fellow.]
1836 C.L. Stretch Journal. 4 JulyOne observed the Col. was a heathen, another that he was very slim and others that he was a devil that escaped from the herd of swine.
1866 E. Wilson Reminisc. 89It would appear that Schlangani had carried on thieving for years, with the greatest impunity, — he being, according to colonial parlance, very ‘slim’.
1872 in A.M.L. Robinson Sel. Articles from Cape Monthly Mag. (1978) 283Of all the ‘bywohners’ hanging on to the skirts of the language there is only one to which we have a decided aversion — to wit, that symbol of Oily-Gammon-Iago-Judas-Iscariotism, ‘slim’. We confess we hate the word, and..that off-coloured cleverness, that masked fair-seeming roguery, which its glib snake-like sound so aptly represents.
1887 A.A. Anderson 25 Yrs in Waggon II. 120It is necessary to be very slim, as it is called here, that is very sharp and clever in stalking your game.
1897 H. Raymond B.I. Barnato 29I have always found that I was as good a hand at buying and selling as most people I came across, and my experiences with the slimme Dutch farmers on the Kimberley market were sometimes very queer. [Source Note: A Cape-Dutch word in general use in S.A., signifying sly, cunning, with a propensity for cheating. The nearest English equivalent is perhaps ‘knavish’.]
1908 H. Raymond Leaven 268Gambling? He’s a demon at it...He is very smart; about the ‘slimmest’ kafir in the compound.
1910 J. Buchan Prester John 39The Dutch about here are a slim lot, and the Kaffirs are slimmer. Trust no man, that’s my motto.
1910 D. Fairbridge That Which Hath Been (1913) 201Have a care, mynheer, they are very slim, the men who pull the strings of this agitation.
1929 J.G. Van Alphen Jan Venter 200When anyone suggested that he had been a bit slim in a deal, he would shrug his shoulders and say, ‘Vel, look how we haf been persecuted’.
1937 H. Klein Stage Coach Dust 125We have been up all night spooring him amongst the rocks on the kopje; he was slimmer than a dassie (a rock rabbit).
1940 F.B. Young City of Gold 188Paul Kruger’s too slim to run the risk of having anything he has said recorded in black and white.
1940 F.B. Young City of Gold 452Oom Paul is slimmer than you think, Andries.
1984 J. Scott in Cape Times 18 Feb. 11‘The wording is very slim,’ admitted Dr. Helgaard van Rensburg of Mossel Bay. ‘It could just as well have come out of a National Party publication.’
1993 J. Scott in Cape Times 25 Feb. 11Having put the Chinese in their place, Mr Stofberg turned his attention to the ‘very slim Jewish community’. It caused an uproar.
2. In nicknames, with a first name, with (grudging) admiration:
a. Slim Piet: The Anglo-Boer War General, Petrus Jacobus Joubert.
1900 H. Blore Imp. Light Horseman 251The last was a thick-set, dark-complexioned man, with a broad face..which bore no trace of that sagacity which had earned for him the sobriquet of ‘Slim Piet Joubert’.
1911 L. Cohen Reminisc. of Kimberley 303Joubert was known all his life as ‘Slim Piet’, and..he could drive a bargain with the acumen of a Scotchman and the intelligence of an Israelite.
1923 B. Ronan Forty S. Afr. Yrs 173The Executive of the Transvaal was composed of men whose names afterwards became historical..Commandant-General P.J. Joubert (‘Slim Piet’).
1937 B.H. Dicke Bush Speaks 45Just imagine the position in which ‘Slim Piet’ found himself. ‘Slim’ (crafty) Piet, they called him, the commandant general, because his political moves surpassed his generalship; his plausible tongue, his sword.
b. Slim Jan, Slim Jannie: Field-Marshal Jan Smuts.
1926 S.G. Millin S. Africans 131‘Slim Jannie’ the people call him; and by that they mean many things — some not flattering.
1946 T. Macdonald Ouma Smuts 7His political enemies use the term in its definition of craftiness or slyness, but some of his friends also called him ‘Slim Jannie’ to stress his cleverness or astuteness.
1955 A. Delius Young Trav. in S. Afr. 93‘Of course, the “brei” is the only thing that I and Slim Jannie have in common,’ said Oom Thys and laughed uproariously...Oom Thys was a nationalist and..he was still very annoyed about being outsmarted by ‘Clever Jannie’ — as Smuts was known to many of his own people.
1970 Cape Times 16 May (Mag. Sect.) 2To many he was ‘Slim Jannie,’ whose reasonable phrases masked a ruthlessness that revealed itself in the platskiet-politiek of the 1922 Rand Revolt, Bulhoek and the Bondelswart rebellion.
1970 Daily News 29 MayHe was known among his Boer comrades-at-arms as ‘Slim Jannie’...‘Slim’ as they used it, simply meant ‘clever’, and not..‘cunning or crafty’.
1977 D. Muller Whitey 89He fixed his eyes on the photograph of J.C. Smuts...He found that the unsmiling eyes of Slim Jan held a chilly light.
Clever, shrewd; sly, cunning, crafty, underhand, wily.
Slim Piet:The Anglo-Boer War General, Petrus Jacobus Joubert.
Slim Jan, Slim Jannie:Field-Marshal Jan Smuts.
Derivatives:
Hence slimness  noun, craftiness, cunning.
1899 ‘S. Erasmus’ Prinsloo 76He found that his partner used his great slimness rather for himself than for him.
1911 Farmer’s Weekly 29 Mar. 11I could tell some amusing anecdotes with regard to sheep stealing and the slimness of the native thief.
1916 J. Buchan Greenmantle 179We do not understand slimness in this land. If you are honest you will be rewarded, but if you dare to play a double game you will be shot like dogs.
1946 S. Cloete Afr. Portraits 283The Boer understood this double standard as little as the British understood the Boer ‘slimness,’ which is its equivalent. No slavery, said the British. Then they took a man’s land, imposed a head tax on him, and forced him to work.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

18061993

Derivatives

slimmer
slimmest
slimness

Browse Related Words

By Category

Titles and Modes of Address
Historical Figures

By Origin

Dutch

By Usage

derogatory or offensive
Slegs vir Blankes, adjectival phraseadj. phr.slinger, nounn.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English