A Clean Slate Comes From the Shop Ledger
Slate is a fine-grained rock that splits into sheets. Its use for writing surfaces produced several enduring phrases.
Slate is a fine-grained rock that splits into flat sheets, used for roofing and once for writing. The writing use gave English two phrases still in daily use: *a clean slate* means starting afresh, and *put it on the slate* means buying on credit — shopkeepers chalked what customers owed onto a slate and wiped it when they paid. In American politics a *slate* is a list of candidates, and to *slate* something in Britain is to criticise it harshly.
- A layered rock. *A slate roof.*
- A writing tablet. *A school slate.*
- A clean slate — a fresh start. *A clean slate.*
- A candidate list. *The party slate.*
- To criticise (British). *The critics slated it.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | slate | Slate. |
| Plural | slates | Slates. |
| Verb | slate | Slated it. |
| Adjective | slaty | Slaty. |
| Compound | slate grey | Slate grey. |
- The roof is Welsh slate.Building.
- They started with a clean slate.Idiom.
- The critics slated the film.British.
Slate phrases
- A clean slate — a fresh start with past debts wiped
- Put it on the slate — buy on credit
- Wipe the slate clean — cancel what is owed or past
- Slate of candidates — an American political list
- Slated for — scheduled, American usage
Old French *esclate*, a splinter or fragment, from *esclater*, to split.
Where does a clean slate come from?
From shopkeepers who chalked customers' debts on a slate and wiped it clean when the bill was paid.
Why does slate mean criticise in Britain?
A separate nineteenth-century sense, probably from an old word meaning to set dogs on something.