Etymology

"Slum" was originally used mainly in the phrase "back slum," meaning a back room and later "back alley".^[12] The origin of this word is thought to come from the Irish phrase 'S lom é (pron. s'lum ae) meaning 'exposed vulnerable place' ^[13] The Oxford English Dictionary says it may be a "cant" word ofRoma (Gypsy) origin. The etymologist Eric Partridge says flatly that it is "of unknown origin."^[14]

Other terms that are often used interchangeably with "slum" include shanty town, favela, skid row,barrio, ghetto, and "The Hood," although each of these has a somewhat different meaning. Slums are distinguished from shanty towns and favelas in that the latter initially are low-class settlements, whereas slums are generally constructed early on as respectable, often prestigious communities. Skid row refers to an urban area with a high homeless population. The term is most commonly used on the west coast of the United States. Barrio may refer to an upper-class area in some Spanish-speaking countries, and is only used to describe a low-class community in the United States. Ghetto refers to a neighbourhood based on shared ethnicity. By contrast, identification of an area as a slum is based solely on socio-economic criteria, not on racial, ethnic, or religious criteria. The term "The Hood" is used in the United States only to describe a slum with a high minority population mostly refering to an African American population, from a shortening of "the neighborhood".