so named because it was used to separate shillings from pence when writing amountsless than one pound before the introduction of decimal currency in Britain. For example,three shillings and eleven pence was written 3/11
slash in British English
(slæʃ)
verb(transitive)
1.
to cut or lay about (a person or thing) with sharp sweeping strokes, as with a sword, knife, etc
2.
to lash with a whip
3.
to make large gashes in
to slash tyres
4.
to reduce (prices, etc) drastically
5. mainly US
to criticize harshly
6.
to slit (the outer fabric of a garment) so that the lining material is revealed
7.
to clear (scrub or undergrowth) by cutting
noun
8.
a sharp, sweeping stroke, as with a sword or whip
9.
a cut or rent made by such a stroke
10.
a decorative slit in a garment revealing the lining material
11. US and Canadian
a.
littered wood chips and broken branches that remain after trees have been cut down
a short oblique stroke used in text to separate items of information, such as days, months, and years in dates (18/7/80), alternative words (and/or), numerator from denominator in fractions (55/103), etc
13. British and Australian slang
the act of urinating (esp in the phrase have a slash)
14.
a genre of erotic fiction, usually published on the internet, in which characters from an already existing film, TV series, etc are presented as having a sexual relationship
Word origin
C14 slaschen, perhaps from Old French esclachier to break
shilling mark in American English
noun
a virgule, as used as a divider between shillings and pence
One reads 2/6 as “two shillings and sixpence” or “two and six.”