Etymologically
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sword

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 03:24. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /sɔːd/, US /sɔːrd/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sword, inherited from Old English sweord (also swyrd, Northumbrian sword),[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *swerdą,[2][4] which also gave Old Saxon and Old Frisian swerd, Dutch zwaard, German Schwert and Old Norse sverð.[2][3] Barnhart, Etymonline and MWU relate it to Old High German sweran “to hurt” and Avestan xvara “wound”, from PIE Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to cut, pierce”), so that it was “the cutting weapon”;[3][2][5] Hoad calls the origin uncertain.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A weapon with a long blade for cutting and thrusting: about 725, in Beowulf, in Barnhart and Word Origins, and 971 in the OED.[3][6][7]

Semantic evolution

From late Old English the sword stood figuratively for military power and war,[2] and since about 1000 for anything that wounds or kills.[7] A sword carried before a dignitary as a sign of authority is from 1429.[7] Put to the sword, to kill, is from the mid-14th century.[2] The image of beating swords into ploughshares comes from Isaiah and Micah, and he who lives by the sword dies by the sword from the Gospel of Matthew.[2][6] Swordsman replaced earlier swerdman before 1680,[3] sword-fight is from the 1620s and the sword dance from about 1600.[2] An older Germanic word for the weapon survives in Gothic hairus.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Beowulf.[3]
  • 971 – first OED quotation.[7]
  • c. 1000 – anything that kills.[7]
  • 1429 – the sword of state.[7]
  • mid-14th century – put to the sword.[2]
  • c. 1600 – the sword dance.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A weapon with a long, pointed blade with one or two cutting edges, set in a hilt.
  2. Such a weapon carried as a symbol of authority or honour.
  3. (the sword) Military power, war or the use of force.

Word family

  • swordlike
  • swordless
  • swordfish
  • swordsman

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c 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 Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press