2006-09-21 15:50:59 · 18 answers · asked by koolhand 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Teaching
from Old English sweord; akin to Old High German swerd lit. "wounding tool",
2006-09-21 15:53:03 · answer #1 · answered by DanE 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well, that's a fascinating story. See, the first Europeans to be introduced to the sword were the Germans. When the Vandals were invading Rome, the romans were using their short swords "Gladius" against the Vandals, who had no such short range weapons. However, Ivan the terrible managed to grab up a young midget in his army, and used the boy to bash the Romans about. He had a rather pointy helmet, as all good germans do, so he functioned much like the gladius.
Now the German word for midget is Sverg, and as they didn't speak Latin, they named the weapons they raided from the corpses Svergs, after the midget that they had used beforehand.
However, in 1060 AD, when the Normans invaded England, they too used Swords. Now Normans are french, and the french have a terrible time pronouncing German Gs, so they referred to the thing as a "Sverd"
When the Normans invaded England of course, the English obtained this fine weapon, but knowing that the French cannot pronounce an O to save their lives, they assumed that the French were actually saying "Svord,"
After the British forced the Pilgrims to colonize America, they decided it was time to alter their langugage, so as not to be confused with that other english speaking group of riff-raff, so they added a U by every O in their language, thus producing the "Svuord," the "Colours of the Rainbouw," "and the "Ruoling Stounes," among other snooty British words.
However, in the 1800s, the "Svuord" had alll but gone out of use except in formal Military attire, and at that time, boot camps had not yet established "Recruit Writing," so the new soldiers had terrible handwriting. Thus, when Webster started his dictionary, and leared of the formal military device, he asked someone to spell it, and the word looked to Webster as if it said "Sword," so that is why the W is in the word Sword.
2006-09-21 23:04:16 · answer #2 · answered by ye_river_xiv 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because it's not supposed to be pronounced the way most people do. Yahoo answers doesn't have the symbols for a punctuation guide, but it's not supposed to sound like "sored". That w is meant to be pronounced.
2006-09-21 22:53:10 · answer #3 · answered by juicy_wishun 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because it comes from the Old English word 'SWEORD' (meaning 'sword') , which is akin to the Old English word 'SWER' (meaning 'to cut').
2006-09-21 22:55:13 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why does Know have a K and a W in it
Why doesnt Phil have an F instead of PH
I could go on forever..
2006-09-21 22:52:56 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
well id like to know why alot of words have silent letters in them like enough and knight and through....the english language come from other languages and probably left the letter there from the word it originated from.
2006-09-21 22:53:12 · answer #6 · answered by lildevilchild_87 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The master swordsman who labeled it had a cut lip.
2006-09-21 22:53:20 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
sword is mostly used in war ,hence they have put w in it.
sacking in war,outrage,rowdeism,dacoity.
2006-09-22 01:43:26 · answer #8 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because a Q wouldn't have made sense...
2006-09-21 22:53:01 · answer #9 · answered by eastern_mountain_outdoors 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Anglo-saxon would be able to answer it presisely
2006-09-21 22:54:08 · answer #10 · answered by Tank D 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋