sword

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A weapon with a long metal blade and a handle, used for cutting or stabbing.

   The knight drew his sword and prepared to fight.

2. 2
   verb

   To cut or stab someone with a sword.

   The soldier was sworded through the shoulder in the battle.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Sword is an Old English word whose first recorded example is in Beowulf. The source gives no earlier linguistic derivation. It traces beating or turning swords into ploughshares to the biblical image in Isaiah and he who lives by the sword dies by the sword to Jesus’ rebuke in the Gospel of Matthew.

Inherited from West Midland Middle English sword (swerd in most dialects), from Old English sweord (“sword”), from Proto-West Germanic *swerd (“sword”), from Proto-Germanic *swerdą (“sword”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂w- (“sharp”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian Swērt, Swiirt, swörd (“sword”), Saterland Frisian Swid, Swäid (“sword”), West Frisian swurd (“sword”), Dutch zwaard (“sword”), German Schwert (“sword”), Luxembourgish Schwäert (“sword”), Vilamovian świert (“sword”), Yiddish שווערד (shverd, “sword”), Danish sværd (“sword”), Faroese svørð (“sword”), Icelandic sverð (“sw…

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External links

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