swan
SWAHN · noun
Origin
English swan comes from Old English swan, from Proto-West Germanic *swan, from Proto-Germanic *swanaz, literally 'the singing bird,' rooted in Proto-Indo-European *swonh₂-/*swenh₂- ('to sing, make sound').
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Journey
The word has stayed remarkably stable in form and meaning across its Germanic history, always naming the same bird, though its deeper root points to sound rather than shape or color.
Related words
Swan is a doublet of sound, both tracing back to the same Proto-Indo-European root for making noise; it's also distantly linked to Latin sonus and possibly Russian звон (zvon, 'ring, chime').