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> The ... riot took place in ... 1355 ... complained about the quality of wine served to them in the Swindlestock Tavern > this was the site of the swindlestoc

> The ... riot took place in ... 1355 ... complained about the quality of wine served to them in the Swindlestock Tavern > this was the site of the swindlestock tavern 1250–1709 (http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/streets/inscriptions/central/swindlestock_tavern.html http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/streets/inscriptions/central...) > swindler (n.) 1774 (https://www.etymonline.com/word/swindler https://www.etymonline.com/word/swindler) Hmmm

defrost 4y ago
You might want to look to the use of Swind and Swynde in English texts from the centuries before, eg: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_... which the OED gives as "To waste away, languish; to dwindle, decrease; to vanish, disappear." and then Swindle Stock would be the site of a place of punishment - stocks on which people are put to waste away and diminish. Of course, language being plastic, it might also be the pub in which farm workers drank after listening to the sound of Sycthes while cutting sheaves to Stuck (or Stock) (placed uprtight to air and dry); but that's a stretch. I drank with the harvesters, who sang me songs about rural life, such as—‘Sitting in the swale; and listening to the swindle of the flail, as it sounds dub-a-dub on the corn, from the neighbouring barn.’
- throwaway4533 4y ago
  As with many other archaic words in English, I'm guessing that "Swind" and "Swynde" came from Scandinavia and Germany where they've kept their old meaning to this day: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schwinden#German https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schwinden#German https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/svinde#Danish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/svinde#Danish A modern example is "oxygen depletion" or "hypoxia" in English/Latin which, in Danish, is called "iltsvind" ("ilt" = oxygen, "svind" = depletion): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoxia_(environmental) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoxia_(environmental) https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iltsvind https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iltsvind It is indeed related to swindle/svindle/schwindeln but I don't know when the two words "diverged": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schwindeln#German https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schwindeln#German If you go back far enough, swind/svind/schwinden may also share a common ancestor with "dwindle": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/swindan%C4%85 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic...
  - defrost 4y ago
    Indeed - the Vikings (Danes) brought their language to the north of the British Isles and it spread and persisted to today. As I can no longer edit my comment above I should mention that the original text by Bede was written by him in Latin circa AD 731, but the O.E.D. references version translated in early | middle English by other authors in the centuries that followed. It's from one of those that the OED quotes the first written use of Swind | Swynde in <cough> "English" </cough>. ( not so much a language as a kitchen sink full of dregs )

defrost 4y ago

You might want to look to the use of Swind and Swynde in English texts from the centuries before, eg: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_... which the OED gives as "To waste away, languish; to dwindle, decrease; to vanish, disappear." and then Swindle Stock would be the site of a place of punishment - stocks on which people are put to waste away and diminish. Of course, language being plastic, it might also be the pub in which farm workers drank after listening to the sound of Sycthes while cutting sheaves to Stuck (or Stock) (placed uprtight to air and dry); but that's a stretch. I drank with the harvesters, who sang me songs about rural life, such as—‘Sitting in the swale; and listening to the swindle of the flail, as it sounds dub-a-dub on the corn, from the neighbouring barn.’

throwaway4533 4y ago
As with many other archaic words in English, I'm guessing that "Swind" and "Swynde" came from Scandinavia and Germany where they've kept their old meaning to this day: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schwinden#German https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schwinden#German https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/svinde#Danish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/svinde#Danish A modern example is "oxygen depletion" or "hypoxia" in English/Latin which, in Danish, is called "iltsvind" ("ilt" = oxygen, "svind" = depletion): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoxia_(environmental) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoxia_(environmental) https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iltsvind https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iltsvind It is indeed related to swindle/svindle/schwindeln but I don't know when the two words "diverged": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schwindeln#German https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schwindeln#German If you go back far enough, swind/svind/schwinden may also share a common ancestor with "dwindle": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/swindan%C4%85 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic...
- defrost 4y ago
  Indeed - the Vikings (Danes) brought their language to the north of the British Isles and it spread and persisted to today. As I can no longer edit my comment above I should mention that the original text by Bede was written by him in Latin circa AD 731, but the O.E.D. references version translated in early | middle English by other authors in the centuries that followed. It's from one of those that the OED quotes the first written use of Swind | Swynde in <cough> "English" </cough>. ( not so much a language as a kitchen sink full of dregs )