Headline words: Slate

Planners slate tower block
Police chief slated after hit and run

Slate is a smooth blue grey rock used for snooker tables, lab benches and roofing. Another use of slate is for writing on -- that's how it came to mean a record of how much you owe the landlord of your local; and why candidates are 'slated' in an election.

But how did it come to be the useful headline word meaning 'to criticise harshly'?

A slang dictionary offers a clue -- there's a verb 'to slat' which means to throw, beat or move with violence. And slate smashes very satisfactorily -- if you've ever seen the ground under a slate roof after a violent storm, you'll know what I mean. Fans of Anne of Green Gables might remember the red-headed orphan breaking her slate over the head of the handsome Gilbert Blythe when he called her 'Carrots'.

It's a good addition to the headline arsenal, but given the meaning 'list of candidates', perhaps avoid it in connection with politics.