 The earliest recorded uses of the word slut date back to the 1400s, although the initial uses seem to suggest more being untidy than promiscuous. It's possible, though, that being lazy, unclean, and sexually liberated were all rolled into one wonderful, disdainful ball. Sluts haven't always been women, though. In fact, Chaucer was referring to a slovenly fellow when he used the word slut, and a similar Dutch word, slaughter, for a careless man, might be related.