Etymograph

English

swallow

Swallow comes from Middle English swolwen ‘to swallow’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *swelganą.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*swelganą‘to swallow, revel, devour’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*swelganreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150swelgan‘to swallow’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500swolwen‘to swallow’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1604swallow

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*swelganą‘to swallow, revel, devour’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*swelganreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150swelgan‘to swallow’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500swolwen‘to swallow’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1604swallow

Earliest quotation: c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure: “Left her in her tears, and dried not one…”

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *swelganą

Another origin of swallow

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*swalwǭ‘swallow (bird)’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*swalwā‘swallow (bird)’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150swealwe‘swallow (bird)’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500swalwe‘a swallow or a swift’
  5. Englishtodayswallow

Today it means

verb To cause (food, drink etc.) to pass from the mouth into the stomach; to take into the stomach through the throat.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *swelganą / swallow

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