swallow [OE] A swallow is popularly regarded as a sign of summer. The proverb one swallow does not make a summer is recorded from the 16th century: ‘It is not one swallow that bringeth in summer. It is not one good quality that maketh a man good.’ The bird’s name and the verb meaning ‘to allow food or drink to pass down the throat’ are unrelated, though both are Old English words.