The word 'sward' originates from the Old English 'sweard' or 'swearth', which meant 'skin' or 'rind'. This term is of Germanic origin, related to the Old Frisian 'swarde' meaning 'scalp' and the Middle Dutch 'swaerde' meaning 'skin'. The semantic evolution from 'skin' to 'turf' is a metaphorical extension, likening the layer of grass and earth to a skin covering the land. By the late Middle English period, its meaning had specialized to refer specifically to the grassy surface of the ground, a sense it retains today.

This is a simplex word of Old English origin. The entire word functions as a single lexical unit.