sword
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- swerd (obsolete)
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English sword, swerd, from Old English sweord (“sword”), from Proto-West Germanic *swerd, from Proto-Germanic *swerdą (“sword”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂w- (“sharp”). Cognate with Scots swuird, swerd, sword (“sword”), North Frisian swird (“sword”), West Frisian swurd (“sword”), Dutch zwaard (“sword”), Low German Sweerd, Schwert (“sword”), German Schwert (“sword”), Danish sværd, Norwegian sverd, Swedish svärd (“sword”), Icelandic sverð (“sword”), Old East Slavic свьрдьлъ (svĭrdĭlŭ, “drill”).
PronunciationEdit
- (General American) IPA(key): /sɔɹd/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /sɔːd/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /sɔːd/
- (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA(key): /so(ː)ɹd/
- (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA(key): /soəd/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)d
- Homophone: soared; sawed (non-rhotic accents with the horse–hoarse merger)
NounEdit
sword (plural swords)
- (weaponry) A long-bladed weapon device with a grip- a hilt (a pommel and cross guard), which is designed to cut, stab, slash and/or hack.
- c. 1515–1516,, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.:
- Malicious tunges, though they have no bones,
Are ſharper then ſwordes, ſturdier then ſtones.
- c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 59:
- (tarot) A suit in the minor arcana in tarot.
- (tarot) A card of this suit.
- (weaving) One of the end bars by which the lay of a hand loom is suspended.
- (heraldry) The weapon, often used as a heraldic charge.
Coordinate termsEdit
- (weaponry): bayonet, claymore, cutlass, dagger, epee, épée, falchion, foil, katana, knife, machete, rapier, sabre, saber, scimitar, vorpal, yataghan, yatagan
Derived termsEdit
- bastard sword
- broadsword
- double-edged sword
- fall on one's sword
- longsword
- pork sword
- put to the sword
- samurai sword
- sellsword
- short sword
- sword bayonet
- sword-bearer
- swordbearer
- swordbearing
- sword-bearing
- swordbill
- sword cane
- swordcraft
- sword dance
- sword fern
- swordfighter
- swordfish
- sword grass
- sword knot
- sword lily
- swordman
- swordmaster
- sword of Damocles
- sword of state
- swordplay
- swordsman
- swordsmanship
- swordsperson
- swordster
- swordstick
- swordstress
- sword-swallower
- swordswoman
- two-hand sword
- two swords
DescendantsEdit
- → Japanese: ソード
TranslationsEdit
weapon
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one who handles a sword
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VerbEdit
sword (third-person singular simple present swords, present participle swording, simple past and past participle sworded)
- To stab or cut with a sword
AnagramsEdit
Middle EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old English sword, a Mercian form of sweord (which some forms are directly from), from Proto-West Germanic *swerd, from Proto-Germanic *swerdą.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
sword (plural swordes or (early) sweorden)
- sword, sabre
- c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)[1], published c. 1410, Matheu 10:34, page 4v, column 2; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:
- Nile ȝe deme þat I cam to ſende pees in to erþe / I cam not to ſende pees .· but swerd
- Don't feel that I came to bring peace to Earth. I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword.
- (figuratively) Military might or power.
DescendantsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “sword, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-16.
Old EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
sword n (nominative plural sword) (Mercian)
- Alternative form of sweord