'Swindle' is German for 'to be dizzy, to cheat' — unreliability in motion became deception.
To use deception to deprive someone of money or possessions; to cheat or defraud.
A back-formation from 'swindler,' from German 'Schwindler' (a cheat, a giddy person, a fantastist), from 'schwindeln' (to be dizzy, to swindle, to deceive), from Old High German 'swintilon' (to be dizzy, to faint), from 'swintan' (to diminish, to languish, to vanish), from Proto-Germanic '*swindaną' (to vanish, to dwindle). The semantic path is: 'to become dizzy' → 'to be unsteady/unreliable' → 'to deceive.' Cognate with 'dwindle' in the sense of vanishing. Key roots: *swindaną (Proto-Germanic: "to vanish, to diminish
German 'schwindeln' has two meanings that seem unrelated: 'to be dizzy' and 'to swindle.' The connection runs through the idea of unsteadiness — a dizzy person is unreliable, and an unreliable person is a deceiver. In German, 'mir schwindelt' (I feel dizzy) and 'er schwindelt' (he's lying/cheating) use the same verb