Why is "slew" the past tense of "slay" ?

[RSDonovan]

...I will SLAY him
...I SLEW him
...I have SLAIN him

I can't think of any other verb that follows this pattern. Is it a complete isolate, and if so does anyone know the derivation?

Ta

[factor-fiction]

I'm sure there are similar ones. Is it much different to I know him, I knew him, i have known him?

[MarkRae]

It's a fairly standard pattern:

fly / flew / flown
throw / threw / thrown
blow / blew / blown
draw / drew / drawn
grow / grew / grown

[HowardKennitby]

Dunno

Chambers gives the past tense as 'slayed'.
It also listed several possible derivations from Old English, Old Norse, Gothic and German so it is probably not surprising that it looks odd.

[FredPuli43]

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?" 'Lewis Carroll' evidently thought, ufishly or otherwise, that 'slain' was correct. Chambers? Hah! 'He slayed', yes.'He slew', yes. 'He slain' obviously no. 'He has slain', yes. 'He has slayed' , possibly, but not as common as 'slain'

[RSDonovan]

MarkRae provides some good examples of ?OW and an ?EW verb but I can't think of any other ?AY verbs that follow this pattern.

[HowardKennitby]

^

Slayed is the past tense; slain is the past participle. No reason to criticise Chambers on this one.

[Answerprancer]

Are youe plottinge somethinge sire ?

[FredPuli43]

True, HK, I wasn't being serious unless Chambers only allows 'has slayed' for 'has slain'

[elliemay1]

There are no set patterns in the English language. That's what makes it one of the most difficult to learn.

[owdhamer]

Was there a racehorse called seattle slew.

[FredPuli43]

Seattle Slew was a winner of the Triple Crown. His name was meant to be Seattle Slough but was changed to Slew so it was easier to say [according to Wiki] Two towns in one name would be reason enough, but apparently 'slough' is a water channel local to the area where he was.

[Wharton]

sow,sew,soh,so what?

[Quizmonkey]

Howard is wrong: Chambers gives both slayed and slew as past tense for the vt. But ONLY slew for the vi.

[Svejk]

Apropos of nothing when asking a crane to move it's 'slew right/slew left'. Do planes or boats slew?

[FredPuli43]

A mriner would say a mast 'slews', when it twists around in its step, its holder at the base, but we say boats and planes 'yaw' when they swing to one side, turning about their vertical axis, thetaliesin

[FredPuli43]

^'mariner' ^ Not sure what 'mriner' is, in any language!.

[Maggoty]

sorry to detract even further but as we are on the subject

is it dived or dove? (as in doe-ve not duv)

x

[mike11111]

Further to Quizmonkey's post, I am at a loss to understand the use of the verb "slay" in an intransitive sense. Perhaps he could give an example.

[mike11111]

Dived in Britain, Dove in US.