Swelg

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic word meaning to swallow something greedily or to gulp it down in large amounts
2. An obsolete verb describing the act of taking food or liquid rapidly into the throat
3. Old English-derived term for swallowing or engulfing something whole in a single motion

Etymology: "Swelg" is an Old English verb, recorded in texts such as the Lindisfarne and Vespasian glossaries and in Old English Gospel translations, where it glossed Latin words for swallowing or gulping. It belongs to the same family as the Old English "swelgan" ("swallow, devour"), and its Germanic relatives include Old Norse "svelgja" and Old High German "swelgan", all pointing to a shared Proto-Germanic ancestor. Its history has been shaped more by sound than by meaning. Over time the verb lost its place in everyday speech and survived mainly in dialect and regional usage, where it kept the sense of eating or drinking greedily, often with a suggestion of noise or excess. It was never the everyday word that "swallow" became, so its story is one of quiet persistence rather than dramatic change.