swart
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English swart, from Old English sweart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swerd-.
AdjectiveEdit
swart (comparative swarter, superlative swartest)
- Of a dark hue; moderately black; swarthy; tawny.
- 1400s: Thomas Occleve, Hymns to the Virgin
- Men schalle then sone se / Att mydday hytt shalle swarte be
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- A nation strange, with visage swart
- c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious,
- 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:
- 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, Act II, Scene I, verses 91-92
- I'll choose a gaoler, whose swart monstrous face
- Shall be a hell to look upon […]
- 1836, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Old Ticonderoga:
- The merry soldiers footing it with the swart savage maids
- 1925, Ezra Pound, Canto I:
- […] unpierced ever
With glitter of sun rays
Nor with stars stretched, nor looking back from heaven
Swartest night stretched over wretched men there.
- 1400s: Thomas Occleve, Hymns to the Virgin
- (UK dialectal) Black. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- (obsolete) Gloomy; malignant.
- 1905, Samuel Major Gardenhire, The Silence of Mrs. Harrold - Page 277:
- The keeping eunuchs were at back, solemn in stately rows, bespeared and bescimitared, the Danish, Irish, and German of their countenances lost in the daub which made them swart.
- 1906, Lord Dunsany, Time and the Gods:
- Suddenly the swart figure of Time stood up before the gods, with both hands dripping with blood and a red sword dangling idly from his fingers, and said: “Sardathrion is gone! I have overthrown it!”
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
NounEdit
swart
Related termsEdit
Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English swarten, from Old English sweartian, from Proto-West Germanic *swartōn, from Proto-Germanic *swartōną; synchronically analyzable as swart + -en.
VerbEdit
swart (third-person singular simple present swarts, present participle swarting, simple past and past participle swarted)
- (transitive) To make swart or tawny; blacken; tan.
- to swart a living part
- 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica:
- […] the heate of the Sun, whose fervor may swarte a living part, and even black a dead or dissolving flesh,
Etymology 3Edit
Variant of sward.
NounEdit
swart (uncountable)
- Obsolete spelling of sward
- 1587: Raphael Holinshed, Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland [1]
- Howbeit where the rocks and quarrie grounds are, I take the swart of the earth to be so thin, that no tree of anie greatnesse, other than shrubs and bushes, is able to grow or prosper long therein for want of sufficient moisture wherewith to feed them with fresh humour, or at the leastwise of mould […]
- 1587: Raphael Holinshed, Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland [1]
Etymology 4Edit
NounEdit
swart (plural swarts)
Further readingEdit
- “swart”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “swart”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, volume V, revised edition, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
AnagramsEdit
AfrikaansEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Dutch zwart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.
PronunciationEdit
Audio (file)
AdjectiveEdit
swart (attributive swart, comparative swarter, superlative swartste)
AntonymsEdit
German Low GermanEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle Low German swart, from Old Saxon swart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
swart (comparative swärter, superlative swärtst)
DeclensionEdit
gender | singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | all genders | ||
predicative | he is swart | se is swart | dat is swart | se sünd swart | |
partitive | een swarts | een swarts | wat swarts | allens swart | |
strong declension (without article) |
nominative | swarte | swarte | swart | swarte |
oblique | swarten | swarte | swart | swarte | |
weak declension (with definite article) |
nominative | de swarte | de swarte | dat swarte | de swarten |
oblique | den swarten | de swarte | dat swarte | de swarten | |
mixed declension (with indefinite article) |
nominative | en swarte/swarten | en swarte | en swart/swartet | (keen) swarten |
oblique | en swarten | en swarte | en swart/swartet | (keen) swarten |
gender | singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | all genders | ||
predicative | he is swärter | se is swärter | dat is swärter | se sünd swärter | |
partitive | een swärters | een swärters | wat swärters | allens swärter | |
strong declension (without article) |
nominative | swärtere | swärtere | swärter | swärtere |
oblique | swärtern | swärtere | swärter | swärtere | |
weak declension (with definite article) |
nominative | de swärtere | de swärtere | dat swärtere | de swärtern |
oblique | den swärtern | de swärtere | dat swärtere | de swärtern | |
mixed declension (with indefinite article) |
nominative | en swärtere/swärteren | en swärtere | en swärter | (keen) swärtern |
oblique | en swärtern | en swärtere | en swärter | (keen) swärtern |
gender | singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | all genders | ||
predicative | he is de Swärtste | se is de Swärtste | dat is dat Swärtste | se sünd de Swärtsten | |
strong declension (without article) |
nominative | swärtste | swärtste | swärtst | swärtste |
oblique | swärtsten | swärtste | swärtst | swärtste | |
weak declension (with definite article) |
nominative | de swärtste | de swärtste | dat swärtste | de swärtsten |
oblique | den swärtsten | de swärtste | dat swärtste | de swärtsten | |
mixed declension (with indefinite article) |
nominative | en swärtste/swärtsten | en swärtste | en swärtst | (keen) swärtsten |
oblique | en swärtsten | en swärtste | en swärtst | (keen) swärtsten |
Note: This declension is one of many; neither its grammar nor spelling apply to all dialects. |
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GothicEdit
RomanizationEdit
swart
- Romanization of 𐍃𐍅𐌰𐍂𐍄
Middle DutchEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Dutch swart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.
AdjectiveEdit
swart
InflectionEdit
This adjective needs an inflection-table template.
DescendantsEdit
Further readingEdit
- “swart”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
- Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “swart (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I
Middle EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old English sweart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz; compare Middle Dutch swart, Middle Low German swart, Middle High German swarz.
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
swart (plural and weak singular swarte, comparative swarter)
- Dark, oppressive, blackened.
- Black; swart.
- Black-skinned, swarthy; having dark skin.
- (rare) Bruised, heavily wounded.
- (rare) Evil, malign.
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “swart, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-23.
Old SaxonEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.
AdjectiveEdit
swart
DeclensionEdit
DescendantsEdit
ScotsEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English swart, from Old English sweart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.
NounEdit
swart (plural swarts)
Etymology 2Edit
AdjectiveEdit
swart (comparative mair swart, superlative maist swart)
Derived termsEdit
West FrisianEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Frisian swart, swert, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.
AdjectiveEdit
swart
InflectionEdit
Inflection of swart | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
uninflected | swart | |||
inflected | swarte | |||
comparative | swarter | |||
positive | comparative | superlative | ||
predicative/adverbial | swart | swarter | it swartst it swartste | |
indefinite | c. sing. | swarte | swartere | swartste |
n. sing. | swart | swarter | swartste | |
plural | swarte | swartere | swartste | |
definite | swarte | swartere | swartste | |
partitive | swarts | swarters | — |
Further readingEdit
- “swart (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
NounEdit
swart n (plural swarten)
See alsoEdit
wyt | griis | swart |
read | oranje; brún | giel |
grien | ||
blaugrien | blau | |
fiolet | pears | rôze |
Further readingEdit
- “swart (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011