swarth

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swɔː(ɹ)ð/ or IPA^(key): /swɔː(ɹ)θ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)ð, -ɔː(ɹ)θ

Etymology 1

Noun

swarth (countable and uncountable, plural swarthes or swarths)

1. 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

See swart.

Adjective

swarth (comparative more swarth, superlative most swarth)

1. (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

     The spelling has been modernized.

Etymology 3

Noun

swarth

1. An apparition of a person about to die; a wraith.

Anagrams

• Warths, warths, wraths

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

swarth

1. Alternative form of sward

Etymology 2

Noun

swarth

1. Alternative form of swathe (“swath”)