He studied Czech and Russian at the Faculty of Arts in Brno. After working at the branch of the Institute of the Czech Language in Brno (1953–1959), he moved to the Faculty of Arts in Brno. He also taught at foreign universities, in Greifswald (1963–1964) and as a visiting professor in Münster (1989–1990) and Regensburg (1991–1992). From 1991 to 1996, he was the head of the Department of the Czech Language at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University. He is the recipient of the Medal of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports, First Class, the Gold Medal of Masaryk University, and the Brno City Prize for 2018. He began his scientific work in linguistic Bohemistics as a dialectologist. He co-authored the anthology České nářeční texty (1976) and contributed as a reviewer to the publication of the Český jazykový atlas. Gradually, he shifted his professional interest to the history of the Czech language, especially in the areas of morphology and word formation (e.g., Slovotvorný vývoj českého slovesa, 1981; Česká kompozita diachronně, 1999). For the benefit of students, he prepared the textbook Historický vývoj češtiny (1977) with J. Bauer and A. Lamprecht, which he later supplemented and published under the title Historická mluvnice češtiny (1986). He also significantly contributed to teaching Czech to foreigners and creating teaching texts for them. Together with M. Čejka and J. Nechutová, he prepared a critical edition of Blahoslav's Gramatika česká (1991) for publication. He is a co-author of collective Bohemian works, such as Příruční mluvnice češtiny (1995) and Nový encyklopedický slovník češtiny (2016). His works are characterized by methodological refinement and philological precision. He was also dedicated to issues of language culture and its popularization throughout his life, as seen in publications like Tisíciletá (1990) and Otisky (2006). Professor Šlosar was actively involved in social events. As an undisputed moral authority, he was one of the central figures of the revolutionary center in Brno in November 1989.
L.: J. Chloupek, SaS 52, 1991, 151–152; M. Čejka, NŘ 74, 1991, 38–42; (bibliography), SPFFBU A 39, 1991, 99–103; R. Večerka, LF 114, 1991, 274–275; J. Skutil, VVM 47/3, 1995, 310–311; **Pocta Dušanu Šlosarovi**, Boskovice 1995 (including a profile by J. Pleskalová); J. Pleskalová, NŘ 83, 2000, 216–217; J. Pleskalová – P. Kosek – M. Křístek, SPFFBU A 53, 2005, 196–198 (and on pp. 217–218 a supplement to the bibliography); J. Trávníček – J. Voráč: Jaké hlavy, takový jazyk. Rozhovor s Dušanem Šlosarem, Brno 2008.