Why is your lord so sluttish, may I say? With all those magic powers can't he pay For better cloth, if what you say is so? Answer me that, that's what I'd like to know.'
- Chaucer, the Canterbury Tales, "The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue"
I was curious to know the origin of sluttish since it seemed out of place in a 14th century text, and sure enough:
"like or characteristic of a slut," late 14c., "dirty, slovenly," from slut + -ish. The drift of this to "belonging to or characteristic of a woman of loose behavior" is as old as Herrick, but the modern uses probably are 20c. Related: Sluttishly; sluttishness. (Source: the Online Etymology Dictionary)










