The word comes from bada ("to swim" – it shares roots with the English verb "to bathe") and kruka, which literally means "pot" or "jug" but is also a slang term for "coward". Note than in Swedish, the verb simma (which also means "to swim") is usually used when the focus is on the movement, for example when describing athletes who are racing or someone swimming from one side of a lake to the other. As for why kruka means "coward", it actually comes from a much older Swedish word, kruker, which also meant coward and came from a dialectal verb kruka, meaning "to bend over/to crouch".