English

forswink

Forswink comes from Middle English forswinken.

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

Earliest quotation: 1810, original 1579, Edmund Spenser: “She is my goddess plain, And I her shepherd's…”

Formed from for- + swink

Proto-Indo-European *pro- ‘before, in front of’

Proto-Germanic *fra- ‘off, away’

Proto-West Germanic *fra- ‘forms verbs with the sense of "away from" or…’

English for-

Proto-Indo-European *sweng-

Proto-Germanic *swinkaną ‘to swing, bend’

Old English swincan ‘to work hard: toil, labour’

Old English swinc ‘toil, work, effort’

Middle English swink

English swink

Every English word from Middle English forswinken

verb To exhaust by labour; overwork.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.