Swintan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An Old English verb meaning to waste away, languish, or gradually decline in strength, health, or vigor
2. Describing the act of dwindling or fading away slowly, especially through weakness, sickness, or lack of vitality
3. Used in Old English to express the idea of pining, wasting away, or steadily losing one's strength over time

Etymology: In Old English, "swintan" meant to waste away, languish, or pine, often in the sense of a person sinking into sickness or grief. Its original sense was physical decline rather than the disappearance it later suggests in related words. The Old English verb is the infinitive form, and it belongs to a Germanic family of verbs for fading and dwindling. Its closest relatives show the same core idea of gradual loss. Old Norse "svinna" meant to diminish or decline, and modern German "schwinden" means to shrink, fade, or vanish. The English "swintan" did not survive into modern English, but its German cousin still carries the sense of things slowly dwindling away.