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In Dutch the word 'zwerver' means 'wanderer', 'roamer'. So it seems to me that 'swerver' is directly related to the Dutch word.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hi, Ginger, and welcome aBoard. Ooh, when Branshea gets back from her trip, she'll be all over this! What you said is backed up: swerve
c.1225, "to depart, make off;" c.1330, "to turn aside, deviate from a straight course," probably from O.E. sweorfan "to rub, scour, file" (but sense development is difficult to trace), from P.Gmc. *swerbanan (cf O.N. sverfa "to scour, file," O.S. swebran "to wipe off"), from PIE base *swerbh-. Cognate words in other Gmc. languages (cf. O.Fris. swerva "to creep," M.Du. swerven "to rove, stray") suggests the sense of "go off, turn aside" may have existed in O.E., though unrecorded. The noun is recorded from 1741. From: Online Etymology Dictionary
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'd say that swerver is directly related to Old English sweorfan which in turn derives some the same Proto-Germanic word as Dutch zwerven. (English, Dutch, and Frisian are more closely related to one another than each of them are to Swedish, Gothic, or (High) German.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Could I trouble you to give me the (approximate) dates that Old English was in use? (Er--I'm assuming you know them off the top of your head; don't bother looking them up on my account.)
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Carpal Tunnel
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the (approximate) dates that Old English was in use?OK, off the top of me noggin. Prior to the 12th century, in what is today, the UK. I think Beowulf is a 9th century poem. After looking at some references: ( secundum Vicipediam et cum grano salis) mid-5th to 12th centuries CE. I see that Beowulf is about 700-750 CE. So, I was off on that one.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Sounds like it opught to mean one who installs wheels and an engine to his bunk but who can't effectively steer it
dalehileman
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bedswerver (bed-SWUR-vuhr) noun "I knew that she was a bedswerver, aiming to sweep out from her hubby's cot into mine."
Richard Flanagan; Gould's Book of Fish; Grove Press; 2002.
Hello, ginger! Although I'm still sweorfan between Redwood Range and Pacific Ocean coastline, I must jump in on this one for just this once. ' Swerver ' is certainly directly related to the Dutch word zwerver, but the Dutch did not invent nor ever use the word ' bedzwerver'. ( the practice of course is not unknown) I would put the responsability for this word fully to the Anglo-Saxons. I tried the find something about the book Anu quotes from, but found nul. What would Gould' s fishes have to do with this so called 'bedswerver'? A Fish Called Wanda?
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