swarth
English edit
Pronunciation edit
- IPA(key): /swɔː(ɹ)ð/ or IPA(key): /swɔː(ɹ)θ/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)ð, -ɔː(ɹ)θ
Etymology 1 edit
Noun edit
swarth (countable and uncountable, plural swarthes or swarths)
- Alternative form of sward
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 132, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- Last year's scythes flung down, and left in the half-cut swarths.
- 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC:
- Grassy swarth, close cropped by nibbling sheep.
Etymology 2 edit
See swart.
Adjective edit
swarth (comparative more swarth, superlative most swarth)
- (archaic) swarthy
- 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XII:
- […] What made those holes and rents
In the dock's harsh swarth leaves, bruised as to baulk
All hope of greenness? […]
- 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volumes (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:
- a swarth complexion
Etymology 3 edit
Noun edit
swarth
- An apparition of a person about to die; a wraith.
Anagrams edit
Middle English edit
Etymology 1 edit
Noun edit
swarth
- Alternative form of sward
Etymology 2 edit
Noun edit
swarth
- Alternative form of swathe (“swath”)