Where does “swim” come from?
Swim comes from Middle English swimmen, from Old English swimman, from Proto-Germanic swimmaną, from Proto-Indo-European swem(bʰ)-.
swim (English): To move through the water, without touching the...
Definitions
- To move through the water, without touching the...
Ancestry of “swim”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | swime | — |
| 2 | Old English | swima | a swoon, swimming in the head |
| 3 | Proto-West Germanic | swimman | to swim |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | swimmaną | to be unsteady; to swim; float |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | swem(bʰ)- | to bend, turn, swing; to be unsteady, move, swim |
Words derived from “swim”