English
Swiss
Swiss comes from Middle French Suisse ‘male Swiss person’, and goes back to Old High German Suittes ‘the town of Schwyz’.
- Old High Germanc. 750–1050Suittes‘the town of Schwyz’
- Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350Swīzer‘male person from the valley or the town of Schwyz’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600Suisse‘male Swiss person’
- Englishearliest quotation 1911Swiss
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Old High Germanc. 750–1050Suittes‘the town of Schwyz’
- Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350Swīzer‘male person from the valley or the town of Schwyz’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600Suisse‘male Swiss person’
- Englishearliest quotation 1911Swiss
Earliest quotation: 1911, James George Frazer, London: Macmillan and Co.: “The obstructive tendency attributed to the knot in spiritual…”
The story
Adopted from Middle French Suisse in circa 1515, alongside the form Switzer directly loaned from German.
Every English word from Old High German Suittes
Today it means
adj Of, from, or pertaining to Switzerland or the Swiss people.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old High German Suittes / Swiss