Talk:sloth

Which came first?

which came first, the animal or the adjective?

• Actually, both definitions are nouns. But it's a good question! 67.164.61.128 08:35, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

Since the animals live in places unknown to English-speakers until after the Middle English period, and the history of the goes back to Old English, centuries earlier, the laziness sense came first. Chuck Entz (talk) 04:17, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

UK pronunciation

The UK pronunciation is given as sləʊθ but the guy in the recording says slɔθ. Siuenti (talk) 16:51, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

• He says /slɒθ/, yes – I've added that now. Ƿidsiþ 17:21, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

The BBC pronunciation is /sləʊθ/ (like "slowth") and that's the only British pronunciation given in the OED, but one hears something like the American pronunciation quite commonly here in the UK, especially /slɒθ/ to rhyme with cloth (/klɒθ/) Dbfirs 10:28, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

Also a lemur?

Hobson-Jobson (1903) says: "In the usual way of transferring names which belong to other regions, this name is sometimes applied in S. India to the Lemur (Loris gracilis, Jerdon)." Equinox ◑ 04:37, 2 December 2021 (UTC)