swivel

Etymology

It is formed from English swive + -le:^[2] the noun is made from the weak grade of swīfan (“to move in a course, revolve, sweep”), with the suffix -el.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Barnhart calls it possibly a frequentative,^[7] and Dictionary.com takes the suffix as instrumental.^[8] Skeat glosses the noun literally as "that which readily revolves".^[6] The Old English verb is cognate with Old Frisian swīva (“to be uncertain”) and Old Norse svífa (“to rove, drift, turn”),^[9][10][11] and with Old High German sweibōn (“to move freely”);^[11][10] Skeat, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also compare sveifla (“to swing in a circle”).^[6][7][11] Partridge derives the noun from the Norse verb itself.^[12] Barnhart traces the root to Proto-Indo-European *sweip-,^[7] and Etymonline to perhaps *swei- (“to turn, bend, move in a sweeping manner”).^[9] The Middle English Dictionary notes Medieval Latin swivelum, used in English records.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fastening or coupling device on which the fastened object turns freely: 1307–08, Vno swyuel de ferro, in an Exchequer account written in Latin.^[2][13][7] Etymonline dates the noun to about 1300.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Weekley says the word was originally nautical.^[14] By the 17th century it was used of a pivoted rest for a gun, especially on the gunwale of a boat (1697, Dampier), and since 1748 of the gun itself, short for swivel-gun.^[2] In weaving it became a small shuttle (1894).^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as something fixed in another body so as to turn round in it.^[15] The verb, made from the noun, is recorded only from 1794, transitively, "to turn on a swivel"; the intransitive sense, to turn or rotate as on a pivot, followed in 1846.^[2][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the verb to 1775.^[11] Etymonline suggests that the verb may have come so late because swive, from the same root, was from about 1300 the main slang verb for having sex.^[9] In American slang a swivel was a glance or look (1914).^[16]

Timeline

• 1307–08 – a coupling device on which the attached part turns freely.^[2][13]
• 1697 – a pivoted rest for a gun.^[2]
• 1748 – a swivel-gun.^[2]
• 1794 – verb, to turn something as on a swivel.^[2][9]
• 1846 – verb, intransitive, to turn or rotate as on a pivot.^[2][9]
• 1870 – verb, to fit with a swivel or fasten by one.^[2]
• 1894 – a small shuttle used in ribbon-weaving.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A coupling or fastening that lets an attached part turn freely, or whose two halves turn independently, such as a compound link of a chain.^[17][11][2]
2. A pivot on which a gun is mounted so that it can turn horizontally; also, a gun mounted in this way, a swivel gun.^[17][2][11]
3. A small shuttle used in weaving ribbons and small designs.^[11][2]

Verb

1. To turn or rotate on or as if on a pivot: She swivelled round on her stool to face the class.^[11][17][2]
2. To turn something on or as if on a swivel.^[11][2]
3. To fit with a swivel or fasten by means of one.^[11][2]

Word family

• swivellike
• swivel-hipped
• unswivel
• swivel gun
• swivel chair

Related words

• swive
• swift
• sweep

Usage notes

A separate verb swivel, to shrivel, recorded in American dialect from 1898, is an alteration of shrivel.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins