swarm

swarm¹ mass of bees or insects

Etymology

The noun for a mass of bees is inherited from Middle English swarm, also swarme,^[2][3] inherited from Old English swearm (“swarm of bees; multitude”),^[4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *swarmaz.^[4][5][7][3] It is cognate with Old Saxon swarm, Middle Low German swarm, Middle Dutch swerm (now Dutch zwerm), Old High German swaram (now German Schwarm), Old Norse svarmr (“tumult”), Danish sværm and Swedish svärm.^[3][4][5] Watkins and others derive it from an imitative root Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to buzz, whisper”), the notion being a humming sound;^[4][3] Barnhart and the OED compare Latin susurrus (“a hum, whisper”) and Lithuanian surmà (“pipe”), as well as a Sanskrit verb meaning "it sounds".^[3][5][8] The OED also suggests that the original sense may have been agitated, confused movement, so that the noun and swerve could be parallel formations on one base.^[5][4][9] The verb is swarmen, formed from the noun in the late 14th century;^[4][3][10] compare Dutch zwermen and German schwärmen.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A body of bees that leaves the hive together to found a new colony: the OED's first record is in the Old English Corpus Glossary,^[5] before 800 according to Barnhart.^[3] Bosworth–Toller glosses it as swarm, crowd, and one Old English gloss explains Latin examen as a multitude of bees.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer used both the noun and the verb; the verb, of bees leaving the hive, and also of people crowding together, is first found in his Canterbury Tales about 1386.^[5][11] From 1399 the verb meant to be very numerous, to abound.^[5] The noun was applied to a crowd of people from the early 15th century, first in the Kingis Quair (1423),^[5][4] often with contempt,^[5] to things from 1548, and to insects and other small creatures generally from 1560, in the Geneva Bible.^[5] Swarm with, to be crowded with, is recorded from 1548,^[5] and Etymonline dates the sense "be crowded, be thronged" to the 1590s.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a great number of bees or other small animals, and as a multitude or crowd.^[12] Science later used it for free-swimming cells (1900) and for groups of meteors or earthquakes.^[5] In Midland and Surrey dialect a swarm was the first migration of bees in the season, as against the later ones.^[13]

Timeline

• before 800 – a swarm of bees.^[3][5]
• c. 1350 – the Middle English form swarme.^[3]
• c. 1386 – verb, of bees, to leave the hive in a swarm; to crowd together.^[5]
• 1399 – verb, to occur in great numbers, abound.^[5]
• 1423 – a crowd of people.^[5]
• 1548 – a mass of things, and swarm with, to be crowded with.^[5]
• 1560 – a mass of insects or other small creatures.^[5]
• 1900 – in biology, a cluster of free-swimming cells.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large group of honeybees that leaves a hive with a queen to found a new colony; also, a colony settled in a hive.^[10][14][5]
2. A large, dense mass of small animals, especially flying insects: a swarm of midges over the river.^[14][10][5]
3. A great crowd or throng, especially one in motion: Swarms of tourists filled the square.^[14][10][5]
4. A dense group of meteors or asteroids, or a series of earthquakes close together.^[5]
5. (biology) A cluster of free-swimming cells or single-celled organisms.^[5]

Verb

1. Of bees, to gather and leave the hive in a body to found a new colony.^[10][14][5]
2. To move or gather in great numbers: Fans swarmed onto the pitch.^[14][5]
3. swarm with: to be crowded with: The old barn swarmed with mice.^[14][5]
4. To fill or crowd densely, chiefly in the passive.^[5]

Word family

• swarmer
• aswarm
• outswarm

swarm² climb

Etymology

The verb meaning to climb is of unknown origin.^{[5][10][15][16][8][17]} The OED suggests that it was perhaps a sailors' word borrowed from the Continent, although no word of matching form with this meaning has been found there;^[5][4][3] it rules out any connection with squirm.^[5] The synonymous swarve is also recorded in the 16th century,^[4][3][9] and northern dialects had swarble and swarmle.^[4] Weekley thought it perhaps ultimately related to swarm¹.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To climb a pole or tree by gripping it with the arms and legs in turn: Etymonline and Dictionary.com date it to the 1540s,^[4][18] and the Shorter Oxford to the mid 16th century.^[15] The OED's first quotation is from a manuscript of the romance Isumbras written before 1600,^[5] while Merriam-Webster dates the intransitive sense to the 14th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From 1668 the verb was also transitive, with the pole or tree as object.^[5] In 1681 it was first used of clambering up a steep slope with the hands and knees.^[5] Merriam-Webster describes it as climbing especially hand over hand.^[10] In Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Suffolk dialect it meant to mount or go up, and with over to vault a gate or rail.^[13]

Timeline

• 1540s – to climb by clasping with the arms and legs.^[4][18]
• before 1600 – the OED's first quotation, in Isumbras.^[5]
• 1668 – transitive, to climb up a pole or tree.^[5]
• 1681 – to clamber up a steep slope.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To climb, especially hand over hand, by gripping with the arms and legs: The deckhand swarmed up the rigging.^[10][15][5]
2. To climb up something, such as a pole or tree.^[10][5]