Slew
A great amount. A large indeterminate quantity, usually of people or things. 'A slew of cousins', 'a slew of emails', 'a slew of complaints'. The implied quantity is more than 'a few' and more than 'a wheen' - a slew is conspicuously many.
Etymology
From Irish 'slua' (= a crowd, a multitude, a host), itself from Old Irish 'slóg' / 'slúag', a word with broader senses including a military host. Borrowed into Hiberno-English in the nineteenth century and from there into wider American English. The word is Irish-origin and chiefly American/Irish in modern usage. Standard English 'slew' as a verb (to swing or turn) is unrelated, from a different root.
In a sentence
"A slew of relatives turned up - I hardly knew half of them."
Historical notes
Slew is a Hiberno-English word that has settled comfortably into general American English, where it now reads as standard informal usage rather than Irish-flavoured. The Irish-American diaspora carried the word across the Atlantic in the nineteenth century, where it joined an existing English-language need for a casual word of large quantity. Modern Irish speakers use it freely; American users no longer flag it as Irish at all.
Sources
- Oxford English Dictionary, entry slew n. (Irish-origin sense). · dictionary
- Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (Ó Dónaill), entry slua. · dictionary