Swelted

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Melted or reduced to a liquid state by the application of intense heat
2. Liquefied or dissolved through the action of heat or high temperature
3. Reduced to a flowing liquid form by thermal energy or extreme warmth

Etymology: "Swelted" is the past tense and past participle of "swelt," a verb meaning to die, or more specifically to die out or be overcome in a dramatic way. Its ancestry runs deep: "swelt" comes from Old English "sweltan," which goes back to a Proto-Germanic form "sweltaną," and the same root gave Dutch "zwelten," meaning "to die." The English verb is one of several Germanic words that once gathered around the idea of death and dying. Over the centuries, "swelt" passed from Old English into Middle English as "swelten," and its meaning stayed close to its origins. The word is a survivor of a verb family that English has largely let go of, so the forms "swelt" and "swelted" now sound archaic or dialectal to most speakers.