Swype

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. Typing on a touchscreen by dragging a finger continuously from one letter to the next without lifting it
2. Entering words on a phone or tablet keyboard by tracing a path across the letters in a single motion
3. Inputting text on a touch device by gliding one finger over the keys to spell out each word

Etymology: Swype is simply an older spelling of swipe, and the spelling shows how the word once sounded. In Middle English it appeared as "swippen" and "swype," meaning to move violently. Its distant ancestor was Old English "sweopian," "swipian," or "swippan," which meant to scourge, strike, beat, or lash, so the earliest sense was closer to a whip stroke than to a casual sweep of the hand. The root goes back further still, to a Proto-Germanic verb meaning simply "to move," traced to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to bend, sway, swing, or turn. That sense survives in relatives across the Germanic languages: German "schwippen" means to sway back and forth, Danish "svippe" means to smack or crack a whip, and Icelandic "svipa" means a riding crop or whip. English "sweep" and "swoop" are related too, so this family of words has long been about sudden, arcing motion. The spelling "swype" gradually gave way to "swipe," and the modern sense of drawing a finger across a screen descends from that same idea of a quick, sweeping movement.