SPECIAL WORDS FOR SEX AND RELATIONSHIP 231 



its meaning than either schwdher or schwieger, and 

 appears in many cases to cover father-in-law as well as 

 brother-in-law, and indeed a variety of relationships in 

 more or less degenerate forms. 



Thus in M.H.G. swdger is used for sororius, levir, 

 socer, and gener ; in O.L.G. swager was also used for 

 either socer or gener, and indeed for any other 

 verschwdgerte person. In Bavarian dialect schwager 

 is brother-in-law, geswagerlich means related sexually, 

 either by marriage or by ' Unehe ' ; while schwager in 

 general is used as a term for some friendly relation, 

 thus the driver terms his fare, and craftsmen of allied 

 trades term each other, schwager. 1 In Anglo-Saxon 

 sweger is mother-in-law, sweor, father-in-law, Old 

 Swedish svaer is father-in-law, Old Norse sver is 

 mother-in-law. In Danish we have svoger for brother- 

 in-law, while swiger attached to fader, moder, datter, 

 etc., gives all the relatives -in -law. Old Friesian an$ 

 Dutch swdger are both brother-in-law and son-in-law. 



Turning now to shortened forms we have O.H.G. 

 swio for brother-in-law, O.H.G. gaswio, M.H.G. geswie 

 for relatives by marriage, brother-in-law and sister-in- 

 law particularly ; M. H. G. geswige is the sister's 

 husband ; gsweyen in Bavaria denotes children of sisters 

 (consobrini), der geschwie, the father-in-law, and die 

 geschwein, the wife's brothers. Still more generally in 

 Old Saxon sum stands for cousins, and in Anglo-Saxon 



1 The Bavarian terms schwaig for an alp or cattle-pen, with schwaiger for 

 its owner, and schwaegerin for its tender, the sennerin, might possibly throw 

 some light on the meaning of swig in the old group-kindred days of the hag. 

 Or, is O.H.G. sweiga for cattle-pen merely equivalent to mediaeval Latin soca, 

 soga, a measure of land, and Greek o-rjKbs, <rct/c6s, a pen for cattle, an inclosure ? 



