swart (Afrikaans)
Where does "swart" come from?
The Afrikaans word 'swart' traces its origins back to the ancient Proto-Indo-European root *swerd-, which simply meant 'dirty' or 'dark.' Over time, it evolved through Proto-Germanic as *swartaz and eventually passed through Old and Middle Dutch to settle into modern Dutch and Afrikaans as the word for 'black'.
Full etymology tree
- swart (Afrikaans), 'black (colour)'
- inherited zwart (Dutch), 'black'
- inherited swart (Middle Dutch), 'black'
- inherited swart (Old Dutch), 'black'
- inherited *swart (Proto-West Germanic), 'black'
- inherited *swartaz (Proto-Germanic), 'black'
- inherited *swerd- (Proto-Indo-European), 'dirty'
- inherited *swartaz (Proto-Germanic), 'black'
- inherited *swart (Proto-West Germanic), 'black'
- inherited swart (Old Dutch), 'black'
- inherited swart (Middle Dutch), 'black'
- inherited zwart (Dutch), 'black'
Ancestors
- zwart (Dutch)
- *swartaz (Proto-Germanic)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris