Slalom

How to spell slalom

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce slalom

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does slalom mean?

1. nounA skiing or racing event in which competitors follow a winding course marked out by gates or poles.
2. verbTo move in a winding, weaving path between obstacles.

Slalom in a sentence

• noun

  The slalom course wound between rows of red and blue gates.

• verb

  The cyclists had to slalom around the cones set out in the car park.

• noun

  She trained for the giant slalom every winter in the mountains.

• verb

  Delivery riders slalom through traffic to reach the next address on time.

Where does slalom come from?

Language of origin: Other

Slalom came into English in the 1920s directly from Norwegian, where the dialect word slalåm described a downhill skiing route. The Norwegian term joins sla, meaning a gentle slope or sloping hillside, with låm, meaning a track or trail left in the snow, so the original sense was literally 'a sloping track'. The sport itself grew out of the skiing traditions of the Telemark region of Norway, and the word arrived in English alongside the rise of competitive Alpine skiing in the Alps. Because the word is Scandinavian rather than Latin or French, its spelling looks unusually plain to English eyes; the two simple short vowels and the single l and m are exactly what trip writers, who often expect a doubled letter that is not there. Over time the meaning broadened from skiing to any zig-zag course threaded between obstacles, including in canoeing, motor sport, and casual everyday speech.

How the word is built

• slalom (from Norwegian slalåm: sla 'sloping, hillside'
• låm 'track, trail')