the adverb 'swimmingly' derives from the verb 'swim', which has old english and proto-germanic roots related to moving through water. the addition of the -ing suffix creates a participial adjective, historically used in phrases like "go swimming" to denote the action. the adverbial -ly suffix then transforms this into a modifier. the modern figurative sense of "smoothly and successfully" emerged in the 17th century, metaphorically extending the image of moving through water with ease and without obstruction to describe any proceeding that is effortless and fortunate.

Structure: swim (to move through water) + ming (present participle suffix) + ly (adverb suffix) - swim: from old english swimman (to move through water), germanic origin. - ming: a reduced form of the old english present participle suffix -ende, which evolved into modern english -ing. - ly: from old english -līce (forming adverbs from adjectives), germanic origin.