Etymology

sweet

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Today it means: Tasting of sugars. Full definition →

Middle English swete ← Old English swēte ← Proto-West Germanic *swōtī
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sweet · adjective, interjection, adverb, noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*sweh₂d-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*swéh₂dus
  3. Proto-Germanic*swōtuz
  4. Proto-West Germanic*swōtī
  5. Old Englishswēte
  6. Middle Englishswete
  7. English todaysweet

From Middle English soot, sweete, swete, swoote, from Old English swēte, swoete, swōt, swœ̄te (“sweet”), from Proto-West Germanic *swōtī, from Proto-Germanic *swōtuz (“sweet”), from Proto-Indo-European *swéh₂dus (“sweet”), from *sweh₂d- (“sweet”) + *-us. Cognates Cognate with Yola sweet (“sweet”), Saterland Frisian swäit (“sweet”), West Frisian swiet (“sweet”), Alemannic German süeß (“sweet”), Bavarian siaß (“sweet; cute”), Central Franconian söß (“sweet”), Dutch zoet (“sweet”), German süss, süß (“sweet; cute”), Limburgish söüt (“sweet; cute”), Low German seut, sööt (“sweet”), Luxembourgish séiss (“sweet”), Vilamovian ziss (“sweet”), Yiddish זיס (zis, “sweet; cute”), Danish sød (“sweet; cute, pretty”), Faroese søtur (“sweet”), Icelandic sætur (“sweet; cute, pretty”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk søt (“sweet; cute”), Swedish söt (“sweet; cute”); also Latin suāvis (“delicious, pleasant, sweet”), Ancient Greek ἡδύς (hēdús, “sweet; pleasant; glad, pleased”), Albanian shije (“flavour, taste”), Lithuanian sūdyti (“to add salt; to brine, souse”), Armenian քաղցր (kʻaġcʻr, “sweet”), Tocharian A swār (“sweet”), Tocharian B swāre (“sweet, tender”), Sanskrit स्वादु (svādú, “delicious, palatable, savoury, sweet, tasty; dainty, delicate”). Doublet of suave.

Sweet · proper noun2

* As an English surname, from the adjective sweet. * As a German and Jewish surname, translated from Suess, from süß (“sweet”). * As a French surname, translated from Ledoux.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishswēte all →

Sweetland

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.