To swing means to move back and forth or side to side from a fixed point, like a pendulum or a playground swing. It can also mean to move or change quickly, such as swinging your arm or swinging from sadness to happiness.
From Old English 'swingan' meaning 'to beat, fling, rush', related to other Germanic words for swinging and moving quickly. The sense shifted toward smooth, repeated back-and-forth motion.
When you swing, you’re actually converting energy between height and speed over and over. Kids on playgrounds are casually doing physics experiments without ever calling it that.
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