slush

Slush appeared in English in the seventeenth century, probably from a Scandinavian source related to Norwegian slusk (slops, wet mess) or Swedish slask (wet weather). The word may also be partly onomatopoeic — the sound 'slush' imitates the wet, yielding noise of walking through half-melted snow. The origin is uncertain. What is certain is that the word perfectly captures the sensory experience: cold, wet, grey, unpleasant.

The nautical meaning appeared first in some dictionaries: slush was the fat or grease collected from boiling meat on ships, used to lubricate masts and equipment. The 'slush fund' — originally a fund created from selling leftover ship's grease — entered political language in the nineteenth century to mean a secret fund for illicit purposes. The connection between kitchen grease and political corruption went through the Navy.

The meteorological slush — partially melted snow mixed with water — has no official meteorological definition. The National Weather Service does not forecast slush. It is a common noun for a common substance that exists in the undefined space between snow and water. Slush is neither solid nor liquid. It is transitional, temporary, and universally unpleasant to walk through.

The slushie (or slush puppy, or slush) — a flavored ice drink — borrowed the word in the 1960s for a commercial product that is ice at the point of melting. The drink and the weather share a name because they share a texture: cold, wet crystals in liquid. One is consumed voluntarily. The other is not.