, this means unfastened; and mettle this means braveness or disposition, being an early alternative spelling of metal from close to 1500-1700, utilised metaphorically to indicate the character or emotional substance of an individual, since the phrase mettle carries on to try and do currently. Partridge claims that the fashionable slag insulting tha

Therefore the notion that slag arrived straight from the iron and metal business towards the unfastened female this means is very an over-simplification. The very first slags ended up men, once the which means was weak-willed and untrustworthy, and it Is that this indicating and heritage that initially underpinned the phrase's transfer on the faire