16th century. Predominantly considered an alteration of waaien (“to wave, blow”) after certain words for swinging motions with initial zw-. Specifically perhaps a merger of waaien with zwenken (“to sway, swing”). Another theory derives it from rare Middle Dutch swaden, swayen (“to scythe, swing a scythe”), which is cognate with English swath. Relation with Old Norse sveigja, whence probably English sway, is unlikely as it would require a highly irregular phonetic development in Dutch.
zwaaien
| Inflection of zwaaien (weak) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | zwaaien | |||
| past singular | zwaaide | |||
| past participle | gezwaaid | |||
| infinitive | zwaaien | |||
| gerund | zwaaien n | |||
| present tense | past tense | |||
| 1st person singular | zwaai | zwaaide | ||
| 2nd person sing. (jij) | zwaait | zwaaide | ||
| 2nd person sing. (u) | zwaait | zwaaide | ||
| 2nd person sing. (gij) | zwaait | zwaaide | ||
| 3rd person singular | zwaait | zwaaide | ||
| plural | zwaaien | zwaaiden | ||
| subjunctive sing.1 | zwaaie | zwaaide | ||
| subjunctive plur.1 | zwaaien | zwaaiden | ||
| imperative sing. | zwaai | |||
| imperative plur.1 | zwaait | |||
| participles | zwaaiend | gezwaaid | ||
| 1) Archaic. | ||||