Swike Definition

Origin of Swike

• From Middle English swiken, from Old English swīcan (“to wander, depart, cease from, yield, give way, fail, fall short, be wanting, abandon, desert, turn traitor, deceive, rebel”), from Proto-Germanic *swīkaną, *swīkwaną (“to dodge, swerve, avoid, betray”), from Proto-Indo-European *sweyg-, *swAig- (“to turn, move around, wander, swing”). Cognate with Scots swike (“to cheat, deceive”), Middle Low German swīken (“to yield, elude, escape”), Middle High German swīchen (“to abandon”), Swedish svika (“to betray, let down, disappoint”), Norwegian svike (“to betray”), Faroese svíkja (“to cheat”), Icelandic svíkja (“to betray”).

  From Wiktionary