Sliver vs slither

[squashyhat]

There's a current thread about a neighbour deciding they are entitled to a 'slither' of someone's garden. Surely it's 'sliver', like slivered almonds i.e. a thin strip. Slither is how a snake moves.

Yes, you are correct.

I’m a little pedantic and was horrified to discover I was making this mistake. It was something I know when I stopped and considered it, but somewhere along the line slither had slithered in where sliver belonged.

It’s so rarely used, I suppose, that we aren’t reminded by seeing it.

Annoying and wrong.

BIL says sliver because he can't/won't pronounce "th".

My DH persists in using slither and it annoys the crap out of me. No, you are not eating a slither of cheese.

Snakes slither , you don’t want your cake to be moving I wouldn’t have thought!

One of my least favourites! My children know I hate it so much they tease me by asking if I want a slither of things. They used to be eating all sorts of slithers when bake off was on 😡

Misuse of ‘slither’ annoys me disproportionately, when it comes from well-educated adults with no additional needs or speech problems.

The internet tells me that:
‘while both ‘v’ and ‘th’ sounds are fricatives, the "v" sound is harder for the tongue and lips to coordinate because it relies on precise horizontal movements - placing your top teeth on your bottom lip while vibrating your voice. The "th" is often simpler to form by letting the tongue rest naturally.’

So I wonder if it’s just articulatory ease (laziness) that has gone *unchallenged.

*for the avoidance of doubt, clearly I don’t go round correcting people, I just vent to strangers on Pedants’ Corner 😊

I'm glad it's not just me! In fact I found this old Mumsnet thread from a couple of years ago complaining about the very same thing.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/pedants_corner/4897026-slither