swindler

Etymology

It is apparently borrowed from German Schwindler (“person making extravagant, unrealistic plans; cheat”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from schwindeln (“to be dizzy; to act extravagantly; to cheat”),^[2][3][5] from Middle High German swindeln,^[6] from Old High German swintilōn (“to be dizzy”),^[2][3][5] a frequentative of swintan (“to waste away, languish, lose consciousness”),^[2][3][5] which is cognate with Old English swindan (“to languish, vanish”),^[3][5] and, according to Etymonline, probably with the word behind swim.^[3] The word for "dizzy person" is recorded in German from the mid-17th century, and the sense "cheat" only from 1773 or earlier.^[2] Klein and Weekley thought that the modern German sense was owed to English.^[6][7] The verb swindle is a back-formation from swindler,^[5][8][3][9] although the OED's first record of the verb, from 1769, comes a year before that of the noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who uses trickery to obtain money: 1770, in the Gazetteer & New Daily Advertiser of 18 May.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart date the word to 1774,^[3][8] and Green's first quotation is from Foote's The Capuchin (1776).^[10]

Semantic evolution

The German word moved from a person who was giddy, to a fantastic schemer, to a participant in shaky business deals, and then to a cheat, and it came into English with that last sense.^[11][2] It began as a cant term: G. Parker wrote in 1781 that it was introduced about the end of the last German war, and that it was first cant but had since been recognised by Parliament.^[10] Merriam-Webster's history, citing Partridge, says it had reached standard English by 1780 at the latest, and adds that both swindle and swindler first appeared as dictionary entries in the 1782 edition of Bailey's dictionary.^[11] Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue first defined a swindler narrowly, as someone who got goods on credit by false pretences and sold them at any price for ready money, and noted that the term had since come to mean cheats of every kind.^[10]

Timeline

• 1770 – a person who cheats others to obtain money.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart date the word to 1774, and Green's first quotation is from 1776.^[3][8][10]
• 1785 – one who obtains goods on credit by false pretences, in Grose.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who cheats others out of money or property by fraud or deceit; a cheat or confidence trickster: The swindler sold the same plot of land to three buyers.^[5][2][4]

Related words

• swindle
• swim

Usage notes

A story repeated in older books says that the word was brought to London by German Jews about 1762: the first edition of the OED suggested it,^[2] Etymonline and Weekley repeat it,^[3][7] and Green's slang dictionary calls the word Yiddish in origin.^[10] The OED's 2019 revision says that there is no evidence to support this.^[2] Grose explained it from the German word for tottering, as these arts were practised by people ready to break, but this is his own account.^[10][7]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster