Other forms: swords
A sword is a long-bladed weapon held in the hand. Draw a sword, a sword fight, the sword of state.
It was a sidearm rather than the main battlefield weapon for most of history — spears and bows did the work — and its status came from cost and from being the mark of a gentleman. The pen is mightier than the sword is from 1839. Note the silent w, which was once pronounced.
1nounswordA long-bladed weapon held in the hand.
“The knight drew his sword and charged.”
sword is a weapon.
Old English sweord is a Germanic word, possibly from a root meaning sharp. The w was pronounced in Old English.
Proto-Indo-European
*seh₂w- — sharp
Proto-Germanic
*swerdą — sword
Proto-West Germanic
*swerd — sword
Old English
sweord — sword
enm-wmi
sword
English, today
sword
enm-wmi 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”). 2 Cognate with frr Swērt, Swiirt, swörd (“sword”), stq Swid, Swäid (“sword”), West Frisian swurd (“sword”), Dutch zwaard (“sword”), German Schwert (“sword”), lb Schwäert (“sword”), wym świert (“sword”), Yiddish שווערד (“sword”), Danish sværd (“sword”), Faroese svørð (“sword”), Icelandic sverð (“sword”), nrn svird (“small longish object”), Norwegian Bokmål sverd (“sword”), Norwegian Nynorsk sverd, svørd (“sword”), Swedish svärd (“sword”); also be све́рдзел (“drill, drill bit”), Bulgarian свре́дел (“drill, drill bit”), Czech svider (“drill bit”), Polish świder (“drill”), Russian сверло́ (“auger, bore, drill, drill bit”), Serbo-Croatian свр̏дло, svȑdlo (“auger”), Slovene sveder (“drill”), Ukrainian све́рдел, све́рдло (“drill bit”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA