The story
- Old English · inherited frommānswerian“to forswear, perjure oneself”
- Middle English · inherited frommansweren
- English todaymanswear
From Middle English mansweren, from Old English mānswerian (“to forswear, perjure oneself”), from mān (“bad, criminal, false”) + swerian (“to swear”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.