Sledge
late 16th century (as a noun): from Middle Dutch sleedse ; related to sled. The verb dates from the early 18th century.
wiktionary
From Middle English slegge, from Old English sleċġ(“sledgehammer; mallet”), from Proto-Germanic *slagjǭ. Cognate with Dutch slegge(“sledge”), Swedish slägga(“sledge”), Norwegian Bokmål slegge(“sledge”), Norwegian Nynorsk sleggje(“sledge”), Icelandic sleggja(“sledge”), German Schlägel.
Dialectal Dutch sleedse, from Middle Dutch sleedse, from the root of sled.
From Sledge(“a surname”), influenced by sledgehammer. Australian from 1960s. According to Ian Chappell, originated in Adelaide during the 1963/4 or 1964/5 Sheffield Shield season. A cricketer who swore in the presence of a woman was taken to be as subtle as a sledgehammer (meaning unsubtle) and was called “Percy” or “Sledge”, from singer Percy Sledge (whose song When a Man Loves a Woman was a hit at the time). Directing insults or obscenities at the opposition team then became known as sledging. [1]
etymonline
sledge (n.1)
"heavy hammer," Old English slecg "hammer, mallet," from Proto-Germanic *slagjo- (source also of Old Norse sleggja, Middle Swedish sleggia "sledgehammer"), related to slege "beating, blow, stroke" and slean "to strike" (see slay (v.)). Sledgehammer is pleonastic.
sledge (n.2)
"sleigh," 1610s, from dialectal Dutch sleedse, variant of slede (see sled (n.)); said by OED to be perhaps of Frisian origin.
