From an earlier verb *slot (“to slide, to slip; to wipe, to sweep”) (cf. Lithuanian šlúoti “to wipe, to sweep”), made into a second declension feminine noun in -a; the verb, in turn, came from Proto-Baltic *šlōw-, from Proto-Indo-European *slow-, *slow- (“to slide”), perhaps a parellel form of *ḱlew- (“to rinse, to clean, to slide”). From the same stem came also Latvian slaucīt (“to wipe, to sweep”) (q.v.). Cognates include Lithuanian šlúota.