Other forms: slurs, slurred, slurring
To slur is to run words together unclearly. Slurred speech, slur his words, slurring badly.
Slurred speech is a recognised sign of stroke and the reason the word appears in every public campaign about it, alongside a drooping face and a weak arm — sudden slurring is an emergency. A slur is also an insult against a group, and in music a mark telling the player to run notes together.
1verbslurTo run words together unclearly.
“After a few drinks, he began to slur his words.”
2nouninsultAn insult against a group.
“The footballer was banned for shouting a racist slur at an opponent.”
slur is a running together, or an insult.
Middle English sloor meant thin mud. The connection to unclear speech is through the sense of smearing.
Proto-Germanic
*slūm- — loose, slack, flabby
Middle English
sloor — thin or fluid mud
English, today
slur
From Middle English sloor (“thin or fluid mud”). The ultimate origin is uncertain, but perhaps related to a group of words derived from Proto-Germanic slūm- (“loose, slack, flabby”), such as slumber. Cognate with Middle Low German sluren (“to trail in mud”). Also related to dialectal Norwegian sløra (“to be careless, to scamp, dawdle”), Danish sløre (“to wobble, be loose”) (especially for wheels); compare Old Norse slóðra (“to drag oneself along”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA