sword English · revision 5760

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 725}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /sɔːd/, US /sɔːrd/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|sword]], [[inh|ang|sweord]] (also swyrd, Northumbrian sword),^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) from [[gem-pro|*swerdą]],^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) which also gave Old Saxon and Old Frisian swerd, Dutch zwaard, German Schwert and Old Norse sverð.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) Barnhart, Etymonline and MWU relate it to Old High German sweran “to hurt” and Avestan xvara “wound”, from PIE [[ine-pro|*swer-|t=to cut, pierce]], so that it was “the cutting weapon”;^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024) Hoad calls the origin uncertain.^(Hoad 1986)

+

+ ==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.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Cresswell 2021)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From late Old English the sword stood figuratively for military power and war,^(Etymonline) and since about 1000 for anything that wounds or kills.^(OED 1989) A sword carried before a dignitary as a sign of authority is from 1429.^(OED 1989) ''Put to the sword'', to kill, is from the mid-14th century.^(Etymonline) 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.^(Etymonline)^(Cresswell 2021) ''Swordsman'' replaced earlier swerdman before 1680,^(Barnhart 1988) ''sword-fight'' is from the 1620s and the sword dance from about 1600.^(Etymonline) An older Germanic word for the weapon survives in Gothic hairus.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 725 – ''Beowulf''.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 971 – first OED quotation.^(OED 1989)

+ * c. 1000 – anything that kills.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1429 – the sword of state.^(OED 1989)

+ * mid-14th century – ''put to the sword''.^(Etymonline)

+ * c. 1600 – the sword dance.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[weapon]] with a long, pointed [[blade]] with one or two cutting edges, set in a [[hilt]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Such a weapon carried as a symbol of [[authority]] or honour.^(OED 1989)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(the sword)'' Military power, [[war]] or the use of force.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[swordlike]]

+ * [[swordless]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[swordfish]]

+ * [[swordsman]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}