Other forms: swivels, swiveling, swivelling, swiveled, swivelled
To swivel is to turn about a fixed point. Swivel round, a swivel chair, swivel the camera.
The thing turns while its base stays put, which is what separates it from turning bodily. A swivel is also the fitting itself, a joint that lets one part rotate against another — fishing lines use one to stop the line twisting.
1verbswivelTo turn about a fixed point.
“The owl swivelled its head round to look straight behind it.”
swivel is a turning.
SWIVel → it SWINGs on one point
The chair swings all the way round without ever leaving its one point.
hooks ontoswing
Middle English swyvel comes from Old English swifan, to revolve, with the ending that names a tool.
Old English
swīfan — to revolve
Middle English
swyvel
English, today
swivel
From Middle English swyvel, swivel, from a derivative of Old English swīfan (“to revolve”), + -el, an instrumental suffix, equivalent to swive + el.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA