Swipe
mid 18th century: perhaps a variant of sweep.
wiktionary
From earlier swip (with a short vowel), from Middle English swippen, swipen(“to move violently”), from Old English swipian, sweopian, swippan(“to scourge, strike, beat, lash”), from Proto-Germanic *swipōną, *swipjaną(“to move”), from Proto-Indo-European *sweyb-(“to bend, turn, swerve, sway, swing, sweep”). Cognate with German schwippen(“to whip”), Danish svippe(“to smack; crack a whip”), Icelandic svipa(“to whip; move swiftly”). Related to sweep, swoop.
etymonline
swipe (n.)
1807, "a driving stroke made with the arms in full swing," perhaps a dialectal variant of sweep (n.), or in part from obsolete swip "a stroke, blow" (c. 1200), from Proto-Germanic *swip-, related to Old English swipu "a stick, whip; chastisement." Other possible sources or influences are Middle English swope "to sweep with broad movements" (in reference to brooms, swords, etc.), from Old English swapan; obsolete swaip "stroke, blow;" or obsolete swape "oar, pole."
swipe (v.)
1825, "strike with a sweeping motion," from swipe (n.). The slang sense of "steal, pilfer" appeared 1885, American English; earliest use in prison jargon:
The blokes in the next cell, little Charley Ames and the Sheeney Kid, they was hot to try it, and swiped enough shoe-lining out of shop No. 5, where they worked, to make us all breeches to the stripes. [Lippincott's Magazine, vol. xxxv, June 1885]
Meaning "run a credit card" is 1990s. Related: Swiped; swiper; swiping.
