Etymologically
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swallow

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The bird and the verb are two unrelated Old English words.[1][2]

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈswɒl.əʊ/ (UK); /ˈswɑ.loʊ/ (US)[3]

swallow1 bird

Etymology

The bird is inherited from Middle English swalwe, inherited from Old English swealwe,[2][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *swalwōn,[2][4][6] cognate with Old Saxon swala, Dutch zwaluw, Old High German swalawa (modern Schwalbe) and Old Norse svala.[2][4][6] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *swol-wi-, also seen in Russian соловей (solovej, “nightingale”); the original sense is disputed.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Before 700 in the OED, before 800 in Barnhart.[7][2]

Semantic evolution

Swallows are popularly regarded as harbingers of summer,[4][1] and the proverb one swallow does not make a summer is from 1539, in Taverner's translation of Erasmus.[4][7] A swallow dive is from 1902,[7] and the swallow-hawk was named for the shape of its flight.[4] Swallows building nests near a house were thought lucky.[4]

Timeline

  • before 700 – swealwe.[7]
  • 1539 – one swallow does not make a summer.[4][7]
  • 1902 – swallow dive.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A small swift-flying migratory bird with long pointed wings and a forked tail, of the family Hirundinidae.

Word family

  • swallowtail
  • swallow-tailed

swallow2 pass down the throat

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English swolwen, inherited from Old English swelgan (“to swallow, imbibe, absorb”),[2][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *swelganą,[4][6] cognate with Old Saxon farswelgan, Dutch zwelgen, Old High German swelgan (modern schwelgen (“to revel”)) and Old Norse svelgja,[2][4][6] held to be from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to eat, drink”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1000 in Barnhart;[2] Middle English forms are swelȝen probably before 1200, swolowen about 1380 and swallow 1500–20.[2]

Semantic evolution

To engulf or drown, of the sea or the grave, is from the 12th century,[4] and figuratively to consume or destroy from the mid-14th.[4] To accept something without question is from the 1590s,[4] and the intransitive use from about 1700.[4] A separate noun swallow, a deep hole or gulf (before 1100), is from Old English ġeswelg,[7][5] and survives in swallow hole, a cavity in limestone.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – swelgan.[2]
  • 12th century – to engulf.[4]
  • 1590s – to believe readily.[4]
  • c. 1700 – to swallow (intransitive).[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To make food or drink pass from the mouth through the throat into the stomach.
  2. To engulf or destroy as if by swallowing: swallowed up by the empire.
  3. (informal) To believe too readily.
  4. To put up with, or hold back: swallow one's pride.

Noun

  1. The act of swallowing, or an amount swallowed.
  • martlet
  • swill
  • gulp

References

  1. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press