- sleazy (adj.)
- 1640s, "hairy, fuzzy," later "flimsy, unsubstantial" (1660s), of unknown origin; one theory traces it somehow to Silesian "of the eastern German province of Silesia" (German Schlesien), where fine linen or cotton fabric was made (Silesia in reference to cloth is attested in English from 1670s; and sleazy as an abbreviated form is attested from 1670), but OED is against this. Sense of "sordid" is from 1941.