Swellan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Old English verb meaning to grow larger, expand, or increase in size as a body or substance does when it fills out
2. To become bigger or more voluminous, as a wound, river, or sail does when it fills with liquid or air
3. Archaic verb for growing or increasing in bulk, volume, or extent, often by filling up with liquid or air

Etymology: Swellan is the Old English ancestor of modern "swell," and it was a strong verb, so its past tense was "swal" and its past participle "swollen," the form English still uses for the participle. Its roots reach back to a Proto-Germanic verb, and the same family gave German "schwellen," which still means to swell or grow in size. What is surprising is how little the core sense has changed in over a thousand years: the verb has always meant to rise, expand, or grow larger, whether describing a river in flood, a wound, or a sail filled with wind. The verb's present meaning in English has broadened over the centuries. It was once used for a sea rising in waves and for pride or anger welling up in a person, and those figurative uses still survive in phrases like "swelling with pride." The noun "swell" for a long rolling wave, and the sense of a fashionable person, both grew out of the same base, showing how one physical image of rising and expanding branched into several everyday meanings.