swing

Pronunciation

• IPA: /swɪŋ/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English swingen “to strike, fling, rush”, inherited from Old English swingan (“to beat, strike, scourge; to rush, fling oneself”),^[2][3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *swinganą,^[2][3] which also gave Old Saxon and Old High German swingan, Old Frisian swinga and German schwingen “to swing, brandish”.^[2][3][4] Barnhart, following Pokorny, compares Avestan and Sanskrit words for encircling, from PIE *swe(n)g-, *swe(n)k- “bend, swing”,^[3] but Etymonline notes that the origin is uncertain, that the word may be only Germanic, and that Boutkan rejects Pokorny's reconstruction.^[2] The noun is Old English swinge, geswing “a stroke”, from the verb.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English the verb meant both to beat or whip and to rush or fling oneself, the latter about 725 in Beowulf according to Barnhart.^[3][6][4]

Semantic evolution

To flourish or brandish a weapon is from the 14th century.^[4] To hang so as to turn freely is from 1528,^[3] to be hanged colloquially from the 1520s,^[2] and the familiar motion back and forth, as of a body hanging from a fixed point, from the 1540s,^[2][3] with the transitive sense, to cause to sway, from the 1550s.^[2] The noun, a stroke with a weapon, survives from Old English until late Middle English;^[7] an act of swinging is from 1589 and the course of a career from 1570.^[3][8] The playground swing is from the 1680s, 1687 in Barnhart,^[2][3] and in full swing from the 1560s, perhaps from bell-ringing.^[2] A free-swinging gait is from 1730, a shift of public opinion from 1899,^[2] and swings and roundabouts an early 20th-century fairground saying.^[6] Swing music, big-band jazz with a lilting rhythm, is from 1933–34 in American English, though the use has been traced back to 1888;^[2][3] the verb “to make happen” is by 1934.^[2] The swinger, a lively and unconventional person, is from 1965 (swinging from 1958),^[3] and the 1960s also gave swinging its sense of partner-swapping.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 725 – to rush, in Beowulf.^[3]
• 1528 – to hang so as to turn freely.^[3]
• 1540s – to move back and forth.^[2][3]
• 1560s – in full swing.^[2]
• 1680s – a playground swing.^[2][3]
• 1899 – a shift of public opinion.^[2]
• 1933 – swing music.^[2][3]
• 1965 – a swinger, a lively person.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To move back and forth while hanging from above.
2. To move in a sweeping curve, or to turn on a hinge or pivot.
3. To hit at something with a sweeping movement of the arm.
4. To change suddenly from one opinion or mood to another.
5. (informal) To arrange or manage something successfully.
6. To play jazz with a lively, flowing rhythm.

Noun

1. A swinging movement, blow or stroke.
2. A seat hung from ropes or chains, on which one swings.
3. A sudden change, as in public opinion or in prices.
4. Big-band jazz music of the 1930s and 1940s, with a flowing rhythm.

Word family

• swingy
• swingable
• overswing
• swingle
• swing-wing
• outswing
• swinger
• upswing

Related words

• swinge
• swingeing

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press