What Does Dwelleth Mean?

Dwelleth means to live or reside in a given place or condition. The Bible uses dwelleth frequently in reference to God living amongst His people and their dwelling with Him. It is not used much elsewhere and abides is the preferred modern English word. Learn more about dwelleth below.

From Old English *dwaljana, reconstructed from Proto-Germanic *dwaljana, from *dwelana, to lead astray.

Origin

The etymology of dwell is rather complex since it contains a number of different senses. The earliest of these is the sense of ‘dwell on,’ which appears in biblical Hebrew. This sense is based on a grammatical feature that allows a verb to be used in two different forms. The other substances derived from the original Proto-Germanic word *dwaljana ‘to delay, linger.’ It can also be reconstructed as meaning ‘to lead astray, mislead,’ an idea that is supported by the fact that Old English had several cognates like dwell, ‘to err’ and dwell, ‘to muddle, confuse.’

Eventually, these developed into the Modern English words dwell and dwelt. In fact, the latter acquired its present-day sense through Scandinavian, which took it over from Old English. The former reason, meanwhile, is probably much older than this. It seems to be a relict of a sense that was once more common but has now become obsolete. Anatoly Liberman’s weekly column on word origins, The Oxford Etymologist, appears each Wednesday on OUPblog. You can subscribe to it via RSS or email.