Sweden (English)
Where does "Sweden" come from?
The English name 'Sweden' originated as a borrowing from the Scots form 'Swethin'[1]. This Scots term was itself derived from the Middle Dutch 'Sweden', which functioned as the dative form of 'Swede'[1][2]. Before the late 1600s, these borrowed terms primarily referred to the people of the region rather than the nation itself[1]. They eventually displaced the native Old English terms for the country, such as 'Swēoland' meaning 'Swede land', 'Swēoþēod' meaning 'Swede nation', and 'Swēorīċe' meaning 'Swede kingdom'[1].
Open questions
- The transition from referring specifically to the people of the region to naming the country as a whole involves a notable shift in usage that stabilized by the late 1600s. [1]
Full etymology tree
- Sweden (English), 'A country in Scandinavia in Northern Europe. Official name: Kingdom of Sweden.'
- borrowed Swaden (Scots), 'Sweden (a country in Scandinavia in Northern Europe)'
- borrowed Sweden (Middle Dutch)
- derived Swede (Middle Dutch)
- borrowed Sweden (Middle Dutch)
- borrowed Swaden (Scots), 'Sweden (a country in Scandinavia in Northern Europe)'
Descendants and derived words
- সুইডেন (Bengali)
- Sweden (Cornish)
- Silicon Valley of Sweden (English)
- Swede (English)
- Sweden and Norway (English)
- Swedish (English)
- Swedish (English)
- स्वीडन (Hindi)
- スウェーデン (Japanese)
- 스웨덴 (Korean)
- స్వీడన్ (Telugu)
- Sweden (Welsh)
Sources
Updated August 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris