The story
- German · calque ofSchwein
- Proto-Indo-European · derived from*suH-“pig”
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*swīną
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*swīn
- Old English · inherited fromswīn
- Middle English · inherited fromswyn
- English todayswine
From Middle English swyn, swin; from Old English swīn; from Proto-West Germanic *swīn; from Proto-Germanic *swīną; from an adjectival form of Proto-Indo-European *suH- (“pig”). * In modern use, especially as a term of abuse, frequently a calque of German Schwein or its derivatives. * In reference to wolffish, a clipping of swinefish. Cognates Related to West Frisian swyn, Low German Swien, Dutch zwijn, German Schwein, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish svin, Faroese and Icelandic svín, and more distantly to Polish świnia, Russian свинья́ (svinʹjá), Latin sūinus, Latin sūs, Ancient Greek ὗς (hûs), Persian خوک (xuk).
Words from the same roots
Old Englishswīn all →
SwindonSwintonSwinburneSwinfordSwindellSwinbrookSwinefordSwynnerton
Proto-Indo-European*suH- all →
hoggan
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.