Slapper

[siany]

From where did the derogatory term 'Slapper' originate?

[geofbob]

"Slapper", meaning an unattractive woman with loose morals, is one of many derogatory terms starting with "sl". According to an extremely scholarly source, http://www.trismegistos.com/IconicityInLanguage/Ar
ticles/McCrum/default.html (which I recommend to anybody interested in words), the word arose in the 18thC when it meant any large person or object; then was used for overgrown women in the 19thC; before changing to its present meaning in the 1990s.

[FTVS]

Much more prosaically, the legend when I was growing up was that it came from the slapping sound made against a womans thighs/belly when having sex. Think I prefer geoffbobs explanation...