swoon

See also: Swoon

English

Alternative forms

• swound (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: swo͝on, IPA^(key): /swuːn/
• (obsolete) enPR: so͝on, IPA^(key): /suːn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːn

Etymology 1

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

Noun

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

• Swoonatra
• swoon hypothesis
• swoon set

Translations

a faint

• Bulgarian: припадък (bg) m (pripadǎk)
• Catalan: desmai (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 昏厥 (zh) (hūnjué)

• Czech: mdloby f pl
• Dutch: bezwijming (nl)
• Finnish: tajuttomuus (fi)
• French: pâmoison (fr) f
• Galician: trastavai m, testabau m, agavante m, dada m, desmaio m, pasamento (gl) m
• German: Ohnmacht (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient: λιποθυμία f (lipothumía)

• Irish: aisnéal m, fanntais f, laige f, néal m, támh f, támhnéal m
• Italian: spasmo (it) m
• Japanese: 失神 (ja) (しっしん, shisshin), 気絶 (ja) (きぜつ, kizetsu)
• Portuguese: desmaio (pt) m
• Russian: о́бморок (ru) m (óbmorok), поте́ря созна́ния f (potérja soznánija)
• Scottish Gaelic: neul m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: нѐсвестица f

  Roman: nèsvestica f

• Spanish: desmayo (es) m, deliquio m
• Swedish: svimning (sv), svimningsanfall
• Telugu: మూర్ఛ (te) (mūrcha)

infatuation — see infatuation

Etymology 2

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 *sweh₂gʰ-.

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

Verb

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

2. (literally) To faint, to lose consciousness.

   Synonyms: black out, faint, pass out

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 539:

     I threw myself down on the island ground, like a dead man, and drowned in desolation swooned away, nor did I return to my senses till next morning, when the sun rose and revived me.

   • 1913 January–May, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Gods of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “A Fair Goddess”, in The Gods of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., September 1918, →OCLC, page 107:

     I dropped the vessel quickly to a lower level. Nor was I a moment too soon. The girl had swooned.

   • 2011 August 2, “Perry the Platypus”, in Phineas and Ferb: Across the 1st and 2nd Dimensions, performed by Randy Crenshaw, Walt Disney Records:

     He's got more than just mad skill / He's got a beaver tail and a bill. / And the women swoon whenever they hear him say…

3. (by extension) To be overwhelmed by emotion, especially infatuation.
4. (transitive) To overwhelm with emotion, especially infatuation.
   • 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Boggly Woods:

     That plush mustache of yours has completely swooned me!

5. 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.

Derived terms

• swooner
• swooningly
• swoony

Translations

to faint — see also faint

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 昏倒 (zh) (hūndǎo), 暈厥 / 晕厥 (zh) (yūnjué), 昏厥 (zh) (hūnjué)

• Czech: omdlít (cs) pf, omdlévat impf, padat do mdlob impf
• Japanese: 気絶する (ja) (きぜつする, kizetsu suru)
• Ottoman Turkish: بایلمق (bayılmak)
• Russian: па́дать в о́бморок impf (pádatʹ v óbmorok), упа́сть в о́бморок (ru) pf (upástʹ v óbmorok), теря́ть созна́ние impf (terjátʹ soznánije), потеря́ть созна́ние (ru) pf (poterjátʹ soznánije)
• Spanish: desmayarse (es)
• Ukrainian: непритомніти (neprytomnity), мліти (mlity), втрачати свідомість (vtračaty svidomistʹ)

to be overwhelmed by emotion

• Dutch: zwijmelen (nl)
• German: schwärmen (de), in Verzückung geraten
• Spanish: derretirse (es)
• Swedish: dåna (sv)
• Ukrainian: мліти (mlity), непритомніти (neprytomnity)

Further reading

• “swoon”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.