Etymology

swill

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Today it means: A mixture of solid and liquid food scraps fed to pigs etc; especially kitchen waste for this purpose. Full definition →

Middle English swilen ← Old English swillan ← Proto-West Germanic *swilljan
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*swel-“to drink, gulp, swallow”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*swiljaną“to gulp, swallow”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*swilljan
  4. Old English · inherited fromswillan
  5. Middle English · inherited fromswilen“to wash; swirl; wash away”
  6. English todayswill

From Middle English swilen (“to wash; swirl; wash away”), from Old English swillan, swilian (“to wash; wash down; swill; gargle”), from Proto-West Germanic *swilljan, from Proto-Germanic *swiljaną (“to gulp, swallow”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to drink, gulp, swallow”). Related to swallow.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*swel- all →

sweltersweal

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.