Etymograph

English

sword

Sword comes from West Midland Middle English sword, from Old English sweord, from Proto-Germanic *swerdą ‘sword’, possibly from PIE *seh₂w- ‘sharp’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seh₂w-1‘sharp’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*swerdą1‘sword’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*swerd1‘sword’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sweord1‘sword’
  5. West Midland Middle Englishmodernsword1
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1515–1516sword1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English sword
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1515–1516, John Skelton: “Malicious tunges, though they have no bones, Are ſharper…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seh₂w-Wiktionary, English sword‘sharp’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*swerdąWiktionary, English sword‘sword’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*swerdWiktionary, English sword‘sword’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sweordWiktionary, English sword‘sword’
  5. West Midland Middle EnglishmodernswordWiktionary, English sword
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1515–1516swordWiktionary, English sword. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1515–1516, John Skelton: “Malicious tunges, though they have no bones, Are ſharper…”

The story

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’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

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Today it means

noun A long bladed weapon with a grip and typically a pommel and crossguard (together forming a hilt), which is designed to cut, stab, slash and/or hack.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sword”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *seh₂w- / sword