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I'll add one thing here. "Slither" is definitely a negative term. A human doesn't slither, unless it is up to something nefarious, sneaky, malign, or evil. The devil is seen as serpentine in the Christian religion, and historically known as 'slithering about' to do evil. The apple offered to Eve, as part of the 'fall from grace' of humanity, was offered by Satan in serpent form. The English language evolved and formed over centuries, in parallel with Christianity as a religion. Hence, many such negative or positively charged words and phrases exist. For example, 'awesome' is "good awe" and "awful" is "bad awe", but why is "some awe" good, and "being full of awe" bad? Because there is the concept that one cannot withstand being in full presence of God. Having some "awe" of God withstandable, but all? Will destroy you. To be filled with awe, something immensely wonderful to have some of, is horrible. Irregardless of the current state of Christianity, English is derived from its historical, cultural roots, and some words can be "associated with malice". And again, I've only ever heard 'slither' used in reference to a human being in a highly negative connotation. NOTE: I fully agree, especially on an international forum which has non-native speakers, assume good intent. However, the initial reply was not angry, or hateful, at least not from inakarmacoma. Anyhow. My 2 cents, worthful or not. (Edit for all sorts of weird errors, and added a bit of context) |