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Origin and history of swelter

swelter(v.)

mid-14c., swelteren, "faint or grow weak with heat, be ready to die with heat," frequentative of swelten "be faint" (especially with heat), from Old English sweltan "to die, perish," from Proto-Germanic *swiltan- (source also of Old Saxon sweltan "to die," Old Norse svelta "to put to death, starve," Gothic sviltan "to die").

This is perhaps originally "to burn slowly," hence "to be overcome with heat or fever," from PIE root *swel- (2) "to shine, beam" (see Selene). From the same ancient root comes Old English swelan "to burn." For specialization of words meaning "to die," compare starve.

Figuratively, of the heat of emotion or desire, by 1580s. Related: Sweltered; sweltering.

also from mid-14c.

swelter(n.)

"a sweltering condition," 1851, from swelter (v.). Middle English had swelt (n.) "a swoon, a faint," from the older form and sense of the verb.

also from 1851

Entries linking to swelter

Selene

a name of the moon goddess, equivalent to Latin Luna, from Greek selēnē "the moon; name of the moon goddess," related to selas "light, brightness, bright flame, flash of an eye." This is reconstructed to be from PIE root *swel- (2) "to shine, beam" (source also of Sanskrit svargah "heaven," Lithuanian svilti "to singe," Old English swelan "to be burnt up," Middle Low German swelan "to smolder") and to be related to swelter and sultry.

Daughter of Hyperion and Theia, sister of Helios. Related: Selenian "of or pertaining to the moon as a world and its supposed inhabitants," 1660s. Another early word for "moon-man, supposed inhabitant of the moon" is selenite (1640s); Greek had selēnitai "moon-dwellers, the men in the moon" (Lucian).

starve(v.)

Middle English sterven, "perish, die, cease to exist," also "die spiritually," from Old English steorfan "to die" (past tense stearf, past participle storfen), etymologically "become stiff," from Proto-Germanic *sterbanan "be stiff, starve" (source also of Old Frisian sterva, Old Saxon sterban, Dutch sterven, Old High German sterban "to die"). This is reconstructed to be from an extended form of PIE root *ster- (1) "stiff."

The conjugation became weak in English by 16c. The word seems to have been used especially of lingering or wasting deaths, and came to especially mean "die of cold" (14c.); "die from want of nourishment, suffer from hunger" (mid-15c.). The transitive meaning "afflict or kill with hunger" is recorded by 1520s (Middle English starve of hunger in the same sense is from early 12c.; hunger-storven "dead from hunger" is from late 14c.).

The "die of cold" sense is marked "Now chiefly Eng." in Century Dictionary (1902) and "Now only North." in OED (1989). Wedgwood (1878) notes that "In the Midland Counties to clem is to perish from hunger ; to starve, to suffer from cold."

"Dear me," continued the anxious mother, "what a sad fire we have got, and I dare say you are both starved with cold. Draw your chair nearer, my dear. ..." ["Mansfield Park," 1814]

German cognate sterben "to die" retains the original sense of the word, but the English has come so far from its origins that starve to death (1910) is now common. The verb is not found in Scandinavian, but compare Old Norse stjarfi "tetanus."