Slope (pronounced slohp)
(1) To have or take an inclined or oblique direction or
angle considered with reference to a vertical or horizontal plane; slant.
(2) To move at an inclination; obliquely to move.
(3) To direct at a slant or inclination; incline from the
horizontal or vertical.
(4) To form or describe something with a slope or slant.
(5) A descriptor of ground or some aspect of the natural or
built environment which has an incline, such as a hill.
(6) An inclination or slant, especially downward or
upward; to lie or cause to lie at a slanting or oblique angle.
(7) Any deviation from the horizontal or vertical; an inclined
surface.
(8) In mathematics, (1) the tangent of the angle between
a given straight line and the x-axis of a system of Cartesian coordinates; (2) the
derivative of the function whose graph is a given curve evaluated at a
designated point.
(9) In slang, a disparaging and offensive term used to
refer to a person of East Asian appearance.
(10) As slope off, a slang term (mostly UK, Australia
& New Zealand) describing someone moving slowly, or furtively away, usually
to avoid work or responsibility; a rare variation is “sloped-in”, used to
describe to who arrive somewhere surreptitiously (those late for work etc).
(11) To follow an inclined course down a hillside
(applied especially to natural features).
(12) In military use, as slope position, a drill command referring
to the position in which a long-arm should be held.
1495–1505: From Middle English slope (go in an oblique direction), from the earlier adjectival meaning
“slanting”, an aphetic variant of the Middle English aslope, from the Old
English aslopen, past participle of āslūpan (to slip away), the construct
being a- (away) + slupan (to slip). From
1709 slope was used to mean "to be in a slanting position", the transitive
sense "place in a slanting position" having been part of the language
since circa 1600. The derogatory slang
meaning "oriental person" is attested from 1948. Slopingly is an adverb, slopingness, sloper &
slope are nouns, sloped & sloping are adjectives and sloped & sloping
are verbs.
The slippery slope and the thin end of the wedge
Borrowed from political science, the terms “slippery
slope” and “thin end (sometimes edge) of the wedge” are sometimes used interchangeably
but, while both refer to similar processes, there are nuances which distinguish
the two. The idea is that a small, minor
and perhaps innocuous change or innovation affecting something can trigger a
chain of events which might result in unintended consequences; in that there
are similarities with chaos theory but a slippery slope is much more specific
and probably lineal. There’s often
overlap between the two and the distinctions are not always absolute but
circumstances usually tends more to one than the other. Both tend to be used in political discourse by extremists and fanatics and are often example of what is called the “slippery slope fallacy” such as
the argument that if gay marriage is allowed, eventually the gay people will be
allowed to marry their goats. That argument
really was raised by some who claimed it wasn't an extreme position to take, pointing out that two generations earlier, those
who had been opposed to the decriminalization of homosexuality because it would
put society on a slippery slope towards gay marriage had been accused of
raising a “slippery slope fallacy”. All things considered, goats seem safe. The
slippery slope is also a piece of imagery adopted sometimes by black-letter-law judges who oppose judicial activism.
The difference is essentially in the dynamics driving the process. On a slippery slope, things happen because of the inherent inertia; the notion that of sitting on a slippery slope, the slide downhill an inevitable consequence of the physics of fluid dynamics and the force of gravity. The downward path will happen naturally. By contrast, the model of the thin end of the wedge is that of the wedge driven into the tree. If left there nothing will happen but if the woodsman continues to hammer the edge into the trunk, at some point, the tree will fall. An example of the thin end of the wedge was the deployment in the early 1960s by the Kennedy administration (1961-1963) of a small number of military advisors to support the government of South Vietnam. It had never been intended that large-scale combat operations would be undertaken in Vietnam but, step-by-step, Washington increased the commitment. An more familiar example of the slippery slope is to adopt a rigorous diet and then allow a weekly “cheat day”. On the first cheat day, one might have just the one chocolate biscuit but the next week it’s a biscuit and a donut and within weeks it’s packets of both.
Although said to be “tall and not ill made”, Slope was “saucer-eyed”,
his hair “lank, and of a dull pale reddish hue… formed into three straight
lumpy masses, each brushed with admirable precision, and cemented with much
grease.” His face, “perhaps a little
redder” than his hair, not unlike beef “of a bad quality”, a “redeeming feature”
his nose which was “pronounced, straight, and well-formed” although marred
still by “a somewhat spongy, porous appearance, as though it had been cleverly
formed out of red colored cork". The
description of the nose is not without significance for it had by some been
asserted that he was of lineal descent from Dr Slop, “that eminent physician
who assisted at the birth of Mr Tristram Shandy, and that in early years he
added an ‘e’ to his name, for the sake of euphony.” Shandy, the eponymous character from Laurence
Sterne's (1713-1768) nine volume work (1759-1757), The Life and Opinions of
Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, was birthed by the “man-midwife” Dr Slop, who squashes
Tristram's nose with forceps as he yanks the baby out.
Slope was the domestic chaplain to Bishop Proudie at
Barchester and began as a protégé of the Bishop’s wife (a truly ghastly woman)
but later became her enemy as he attempted when he endeavored to wrest the
control of the diocese from her hands by becoming an eminence (pâle) rouge, a kind of vicarage Richelieu controlling
the Bishop. The plots and schemes of the
calculating chaplain, conducted with much obsequiousness, play out in the novel
as a part of a struggle between those of the high church and the evangelicals,
a struggle not resolved to this day. The
Trollope aficionados don’t regard Barchester
Towers as his best work but few deny it’s one of the most enjoyable and anyone who wishes to sample Trollope should start
here.
On the slopes: Lindsay Lohan in Gstaad, Switzerland, 2016. The experience on skis may have come in handy in 2022 during filming for Netflix's Falling for Christmas.
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