Swam
/swæm/noun
Simple past tense of swim, meaning moved through water by propelling the body.
Did you know?“Swam” descends from a Proto-Germanic root meaning to move or surge, and its deep family includes words for roaming and wandering, showing how motion itself was encoded into the word long before English.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*s(w)eip- / *s(w)em-
“to move, sweep, or go along”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*swimmaną
“to swim, move through water”
Old English
OE
swimman
“to swim; move in water”
Middle English
ME
swimmen / swam
“to swim; past tense swam”
Modern English
EN
swam
“simple past tense of swim”