Meaning

noun the act of swimming; :

verb travel through water

verb be afloat either on or below a liquid surface and not sink to the bottom

originFrom Middle English swymmen, from Old English swimman (“to swim, float”) (class III strong verb; past tense swamm, past participle geswummen), from Proto-West Germanic *swimman, from Proto-Germanic *swimmaną (“to swim”), from Proto-Indo-European *swem(bʰ)- (“to be unsteady, move, swim”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian sweem, swome, swume, swumi, swumme, swääm (“to swim”), Saterland Frisian…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0