Old English · verb

swican

Normalised swīcan

Part of speech: verb
Verb class: strong class I
IPA: /ˈswiː.kɑn/
Syllables: ˈswiː · kɑn (2 syllables)
Modern English: swike treacherous

Meaning

to wander, to move about
to deceive, be treacherous

Conjugation

Conjugation of swican
Indicative
	Present	Past
1st singular	swīce	swāc
2nd singular	swīcst	swice
3rd singular	swīcþ	swāc
Plural	swīcaþ	swicon
Subjunctive
Singular	swīce	swice
Plural	swīcen	swicen

Non-finite forms of swican
	Form
Infinitive	swīcan
Inflected infinitive	swīcenne
Imperative singular	swīc
Imperative plural	swīcaþ
Present participle	swīcende
Past participle	swicen ġeswicen

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *swīkwan, from Proto-Germanic *swīkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *swem(bʰ)- (“to bend, turn, swing”). Cognate with Old Frisian swīka (“stay far from”), Old Saxon swīkan (“betray, languish”), Middle Dutch swiken (Dutch bezwijken (“give way, sink”)), Old High German swīhhan (dialectal German schweichen (“wander round, deceive”)), Old Norse svíkva (“betray”) (Swedish svika, Danish svige).

Descendants

swike

Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swican · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution