Swink
/swɪŋk/noun
To work hard or toil, especially through exhausting physical labor.
Did you know?*Swink* appears in Middle English literature, including Chaucer, where it meant strenuous labor rather than magical or supernatural work.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*swinkijaną
“To toil or labor; reconstructed ancestral form”
Old English
Old English
swincan
“To labor, toil, or suffer exertion”
Middle English
Middle English
swinken
“To work hard or labor intensely”
14th Century
Middle English
swink
“Hard labor, toil, or strenuous exertion”
Modern English
English
swink
“To toil; an archaic or dialectal word for exhausting work”