Swiss

How to spell swiss

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce swiss

What does swiss mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to Switzerland, its people, or its products.

Swiss in a sentence

• The firm opened a swiss bank account to handle the overseas payments.

• She bought a precise swiss watch during the trip to Geneva.

Where does swiss come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word ultimately traces back to Schwyz, the name of one of the three original cantons that banded together in the late 1200s to form the Swiss confederation. The name of that small region came to stand for the whole alliance and then for its people, much as a single founding state can lend its name to an entire nation. English took the word in the 1500s through the French Suisse and the German Schweiz, both of which echo the same homeland name. The doubled 's' and the simple 'wi' spelling reflect that Germanic and French heritage rather than any Latin form. Because the spoken word sounds exactly as it looks, the only real trap is remembering the final double 's', which mirrors the country's own short, snappy name Schweiz.

How the word is built

• swiss (from Schwyz, the founding canton of the Swiss confederation)
• no affix