Where does “swallow” come from?

Swallow comes from Middle English swalowe, from Old English swelgan, from Proto-Germanic swelganą, from Proto-Indo-European swelk-, ultimately from the root swel-.

swallow (English): To cause to pass from the mouth into the...

Definitions

  1. To cause to pass from the mouth into the...

Ancestry of “swallow”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle EnglishswalweA swallow or a swift; The meat of such birds
2Old Englishswealweswallow
3Proto-West Germanic*swalwāswallow (bird)
4Proto-Germanicswalwǭswallow

Words derived from “swallow”

Every word from Proto-Germanic swalwǭ →