See also: Swoon

English

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English swoune, swone, from the verb (see below).

Noun

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swoon (plural swoons)

  1. A faint.
    • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:
      "I felt my strength fading away, and I was in a half swoon. How long this horrible thing lasted I know not, but it seemed that a long time must have passed before he took his foul, awful, sneering mouth away. I saw it drip with the fresh blood!"
    • 14th century CE, Guanzhong, L., “1. Three Heroes Swear Brotherhood In The Peach Garden; One Victory Shatters The Rebels In Battlegrounds.”, in Brewitt-Taylor, C. H., transl., Romance of the Three Kingdoms[2], published 1925, archived from the original on 25 January 2022:
      As he drew near the throne, a rushing whirlwind arose in the corner of the hall and, lo! from the roof beams floated down a monstrous black serpent that coiled itself up on the very seat of majesty. The Emperor fell in a swoon.
  2. An infatuation.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English swounen, swonen (to faint), and aswoune (in a swoon), both ultimately from Old English ġeswōgen (insensible, senseless, dead), past participle of swōgan (to make a sound, overrun, suffocate) (compare Old English āswōgan (to cover over, overcome)), from Proto-West Germanic *swōgan, from Proto-Germanic *swōganą (to make a noise), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)weh₂gʰ-.

Cognate with Low German swogen (to sigh, groan), Dutch zwoegen (to groan, breathe heavily), dialectal Norwegian søgja (to whistle, hum, talk loudly). More at sough.

Verb

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swoon (third-person singular simple present swoons, present participle swooning, simple past and past participle swooned) (intransitive)

  1. (literally) To faint, to lose consciousness.
    Synonyms: black out, faint, pass out
  2. (by extension) To be overwhelmed by emotion, especially infatuation.
  3. To make a moan, sigh, or some other sound expressing infatuation or affection.
    The girls swooned at the picture of their favorite actor.
    • 2013 (November 2), Pinky, 10 minutes into episode 25 ("The Spy Who Slimed Me") of TV series "Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures" per closed captions
      [Swoons] For sure. He's totally dreamy. Uh--but my heart still belongs to you, Pac-ums.
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References

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  1. ^ Jespersen, Otto (1909) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)‎[1], volumes I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 7.31, page 212.

Further reading

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