Breaking down claim early Cinderella versions called her 'Cinder-sl**'

A rumor regarding the fairy tale "Cinderella" has popped up around the internet from time to time over the years. According to the rumor, Cinderella's wicked step-sisters nicknamed her "Cinder-sl**" (a derogatory for a loose woman) in early-Victorian versions of the story.

The claim was shared to X in 2014 (archived), 2019 (archived) and 2020 (archived). It was posted to Facebook in 2023 (archived). In 2011, it was posted to Reddit (archived).

This claim was mostly false. The only version of the story Snopes could find that used the nickname was published in 1921.

That version, Charles Perrault's "Old-Time Stories" translated by A. E. Johnson, included a line that said Cinderella became "commonly known as Cinder-sl**" because "she used to sit amongst the cinders in the corner of the chimney" when she finished her work. However, that nickname did not appear in previous translations of the story.

The version of Cinderella most popular in the English-speaking world is Perrault's, which he wrote and published in French along with many other popular fairy tales in 1697. The sentence the "Cinder-sl**" nickname was translated from was this one:

Lors quelle avoit fait son ouvrage, elle s'alloit mettre au coin de la cheminée, & s'asseoir dans les cendres, ce qui faisoit qu'on l'appelloit communément dans le logic Cucendron; la cadette qui n'estoit pas si malhonneste que son aisnée, l'appelloit Cendrillon; cependant Cendrillon avec ses méchans habits, ne lassoit pas d'estre cent fois plus belle que ses soeurs, quoy que vestuës tres-magnifiquement.

The word the 1921 version translated into "Cinder-sl**" was "Cucendron." Cucendron combines the French words "cendre," which means ash or cinders, and "cul," which is a vulgar word to refer to someone's behind. So "Cucendron" is most literally a vulgar version of "ashy butt." While there is no way to know with certainty that Perrault came up with the word himself, the French Littré dictionary created between 1872 and 1877 credited the word's origin to Perrault's Cinderella. Its definition in that dictionary was "child, unclean person."

Cendrillon, the other nickname within that sentence and the one that was ultimately translated into "Cinderella," mostly closely translates to "little ash."

Rather than translate these nicknames literally, translators instead created nicknames that matched the tone of the original nicknames. The version of the tale that appeared in the 1891 "Blue Fairy Book," which said Perrault's tales within it were printed from the English versions of the 18th century, did exactly this:

When she had done her work, she used to go into the chimney-corner, and sit down among cinders and ashes, which made her commonly be called Cinderwench; but the youngest, who was not so rude and uncivil as the eldest, called her Cinderella. However, Cinderella, notwithstanding her mean apparel, was a hundred times handsomer than her sisters, though they were always dressed very richly.

The "Cinder-sl**" nickname wasn't used in any of a list of versions of the story collected on the website of retired folklore researcher D.L. Ashliman. There are two variations of the Brothers Grimm version of the fairy tale on Ashliman's website, one from 1812 and another from 1857. Neither variant of that story used the mean, alternative nickname for Cinderella.

1812:

Her stepsisters took her dresses away from her and made her wear an old gray skirt. "That is good enough for you!" they said, making fun of her and leading her into the kitchen. Then the poor child had to do the most difficult work. She had to get up before sunrise, carry water, make the fire, cook, and wash. To add to her misery, her stepsisters ridiculed her and then scattered peas and lentils into the ashes, and she had to spend the whole day sorting them out again. At night when she was tired, there was no bed for her to sleep in, but she had to lie down next to the hearth in the ashes. Because she was always dirty with ashes and dust, they gave her the name Cinderella.

1857:

There she had to do hard work from morning until evening, get up before daybreak, carry water, make the fires, cook, and wash. Besides this, the sisters did everything imaginable to hurt her. They made fun of her, scattered peas and lentils into the ashes for her, so that she had to sit and pick them out again. In the evening when she had worked herself weary, there was no bed for her. Instead she had to sleep by the hearth in the ashes. And because she always looked dusty and dirty, they called her Cinderella.

Snopes could not find a version of the Cinderella story using "Cinder-sl**" that predated the 1921 translation. 

The claim may have been perpetuated by a now-removed edit to the Wikipedia page for the nursery rhyme "See Saw Margery Daw," which was linked to in the 2011 Reddit thread. Prior to June 2019, the page contained an unsourced line that claimed "Cindersl**" was one of the older titles for Cinderella.

Snopes reporter Anna Rascouet-Paz contributed translations for this story.