Etymology

swab

S1W4A1B3

Today it means: A small piece of soft, absorbent material, such as gauze, used to clean wounds, apply medicine, or take samples of body fluids. Often attached to a stick or wire to aid access. Full definition →

Middle English swabber ← Middle Dutch zwabber
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The story

  1. Middle Dutch · derived fromzwabber
  2. Middle English · derived fromswabber“sailor detailed to swab decks”
  3. English todayswab

Mid 17th century (in the sense 'mop for cleaning the decks'): back-formation from Middle English swabber (“sailor detailed to swab decks”), from Middle Dutch zwabber, from a Germanic base meaning 'splash' or 'sway', also found as nautical German Schwabber and Volga German Schwabber ("scrubber, mop, swab")

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.