masc. proper name, Old English Ælfræd, literally "elf-counsel," from ælf (see elf) + ræd "counsel" (see rede). Alfred the Great was king of the West Saxons 871-899. Related: Alfredian (1814).

transuranic element, 1957, named for Alfred Nobel (q.v.). With metallic element ending -ium.

1670s, "fall or sink into a muddy place," probably from a Scandinavian source such as Norwegian and Danish slumpe "fall upon," Swedish slumpa; perhaps ultimately of imitative origin. Related: Slumped; slumping.

The word "slump," or "slumped," has too coarse a sound to be used by a lady. [Eliza Leslie, "Miss Leslie's Behaviour Book," Philadelphia, 1839]

Economic sense from 1888.

"supercontinent of the late Paleozoic era," 1924, from Greek pan- "all" (see pan-) + gaia "earth" (see Gaia). First attested in German, 1920, in Alfred Wegener's "Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane" (but according to OED the word is not found in 1914 first edition).

intelligence test, first published 1916 as a revision and extension of the Binet-Simon intelligence tests, from Stanford University (California, U.S.) + the name of French psychologist Alfred Binet, who devised the attempt at a scientific measurement of intelligence.