slimmer

The core adjective 'slim' entered English in the mid-17th century from Dutch or Low German, where 'slim' meant 'bad, sly, clever'. Its original English sense was 'thin, slender' but with a negative connotation of 'frail or weak'. Over time, this negative association faded, and by the 20th century, 'slim' acquired a positive connotation of 'attractively thin'. The comparative form 'slimmer' is built using the native English suffix '-er', a standard grammatical device for comparing qualities. The noun sense, 'a person trying to lose weight', is a 20th-century development, directly derived from the adjective and reflecting modern cultural preoccupations with body image.

The word 'slim' is a simplex word of Germanic origin (likely from Dutch or Low German). The suffix '-er' is a native English comparative suffix from Old English '-ra', used to form the comparative degree of adjectives and adverbs.