slaught-beam

== English == === Alternative forms === slaught-boom === Etymology === Probably a calque of Dutch slagboom or German Schlagbaum. These are etymologically equivalent to English slay +‎ beam, meaning a beam that can be banged (“slain”) down. The word slaught (related with slay) would have been chosen because it is phonetically closer to the continental words. Alternatively it might be a phono-semantic matching of Dutch sluitboom, which has the same sense, but literally means “closing beam”. In this case, however, the etymological relation between the element slaught and the above-mentioned words would be a curious coincidence. === Pronunciation === (UK) IPA(key): /ˈslɔːt.biːm/ === Noun === slaught-beam (plural slaught-beams) (obsolete, military) Barrier. ==== References ==== An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “slagboom”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute