Slither!

[kissthegirlshesnotbehindthedoor]

In response to why does the moon change shape!

It's supposed to be sliver, right?

Ok, I keep changing my mind. I think slither is accepted as a variant of sliver.

Ooh gosh, you're not wrong.

OMG yes! what is this monstrosity in? I despair, really I do.

Right! Of course it should be sliver.

Slither means something else entirely.

slither is never a noun AFAIK - I mean not even for the movement made by a snake "It went on a slither" nonono

Usborne, no less!

'Am shook!'

Omg.
A sliver of cake please
The crescent moon was merely a sliver in the sky

Snakes slither along the ground
Jelly slithers off the plate

And no, slither is not an accepted variant, just soooo many people can't hear the difference and don't read enough to have seen the difference.

I read somewhere that there is evidence of a “slither of lemon” dating back to something like 1900. And that “slither” is commonly used by newspaper now instead of “sliver”. So I think it’s one of those instances where language is evolving. On the surface, it seems this evolution is because of ignorance, but it might be one of those scenarios where we hear so many different accents now that the varied pronunciation of words causes confusion. Better to embrace tbh.

Will you ask Susie Dent about the 1900 slither?

With regards to myself wanting a slither of Anty Mary;s apple pie..........

Reminded me of this guy….
Spook!

I've been noticing the increasing incorrect (to me) use of slither for some years now. A 'slither of cake' is frequently seen, often used by American authors, but increasingly now by U.K. authors.
At first I used to think that it was an editorial error, but I see it so often now, I think the authors are using the wrong word.

Whenever I see "sliver of cake", I give little cheer!

I don’t have a direct line into Susie Dent, but I would if I could! I looked it up after I posted and it was 1919. Over a hundred years of incorrect usage.

I would only know how to contact her by sending an e-mail to Countdown, but she wouldn't reply directly.

Susie Dent writes a short column for the Radio Times each week called Dictionary Corner. It would be possible to contact her via the RT and ask her to look at sliver versus slither!

I'm fairly sure Susie Dent is on Twitter so that would be a way of contacting her.

I don’t have a twitter unfortunately. I think the question isn’t “is the correct word ‘slither’ or ‘sliver’?” (we all know it’s ‘sliver’) but rather “how long/often does a word need to be used in a certain context for the meaning to become ‘accepted’?”

If a significant number of people use the word ‘slither’ to describe a small slice of something, an even bigger number of people understand the meaning and context when it’s used that way, and we’ve got documentation of it being used that way for over a hundred years, then why isn’t that an accepted definition? And who makes that call? (Apparently the OED make reference to something relevant here but I have no way of checking what that is presently.)