Ooh I had this wonder a while back and jotted it down just in case anyone else ever wondered about it:
Comes from the ye olde paper-based blogs they call newspapers. When an article is being put together it’s given a short name, sort of like a project name. This name would remain the same throughout the article’s life - from reporter through to editor - it left its trail through the process. Like a slug.
That's not what Wikipedia says about its etymology though.
>The origin of the term slug derives from the days of hot-metal printing, when printers set type by hand in a small form called a stick. Later huge Linotype machines turned molten lead into casts of letters, lines, sentences and paragraphs. A line of lead in both eras was known as a slug.
Ooh interesting. It looks like I have either misinterpreted or found a source that misinterpreted (it was a few years back, unsure if I came to the conclusion or found it). I'll have to update my notes, cheers!
I'm not sure you're hallucinating. The dictionary I checked lists the printing and journalism terms separately. It's quite possible they have diverging etymologies, meaning both can be correct:
5. Print.
a. a thick strip of type metal less than type-high.
b. such a strip containing a type-high number or other character for temporary use.
c. a line of type in one piece, as produced by a Linotype.
8. Journalism.
a. a short phrase or title used to indicate the story content of a piece of copy.
b. the line of type carrying this information.
Aye this is what it seems to be having double checked the reply's claim
Got to the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slug_(publishing) which could possibly support the slimy conclusion of "it's a trail through the process" but that article has an etymology section that refers to the metal slug
I guess it could mean both depending on whether you're looking for the meaning of the word or the meaning of the concept but I didn't find any other slimy grub references (via an admittedly limited double check)
