Spot The Frippet: slug.

 Slug is an interesting word.

It starts with the animal:

Arion afer. Photo by Prashanthns

and then two different attributes of the animal diverge into different paths of meaning.

The first is the shape of the thing, which gives us a word for a bullet:

shotgun cartridge, photo by Divingpetrel

and also for small pieces of the lead type used for printing, and (in Canada) tokens for slot machines. It gives us the word which describes a small amount of powerfully alcoholic drink, too.

If you slug someone then you're hitting them with the force of a bullet (or perhaps a drink); but a person who's a slug isn't rushing round like Superman, and this is because the animal slug doesn't itself exactly frisk and scamper as it goes about its daily tasks. For this reason a human slug don't slug people, because a slug means lazy person. (A sluggard can hardly be bothered to get up because he's originally a slug abed.)

To end on something regally lovely, here's a sea slug:

Chromodoris dianae. Photo by Bernard DUPONT

I hope you spot your slug before you tread on it!

Spot the Frippet: slug. This word probably came from Scandinavia, and in English it first of all meant a slow person or animal.