swart

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /swɔː(ɹ)t/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /swɔɹt/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t

Etymology 1

From Middle English swart, from Old English sweart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swerd-.

Adjective

swart (comparative swarter, superlative swartest)

1. 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious,

   • 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, , London: Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, , published 1646, →OCLC:

     Of shades , and wanton winds , and gushing brooks ,
     On whose fresh lap the swart - star sparely looks

   • 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

   • 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.

   • 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.

2. (UK dialectal) Black. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (obsolete) Gloomy; malignant.
   • 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods‎, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 4:

     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 terms

• swarten
• swarty

Related terms

• forswart
• swartness

Noun

swart

1. (UK dialectal) Black or dark dyestuff.

Related terms

• swarth

Etymology 2

From Middle English swarten, from Old English sweartian, from Proto-West Germanic *swartōn, from Proto-Germanic *swartōną. By surface analysis, swart +‎ -en.

Verb

swart (third-person singular simple present swarts, present participle swarting, simple past and past participle swarted)

1. (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 3

Variant of sward.

Noun

swart (uncountable)

1. Obsolete spelling of sward
   • 1587, Raphael Holinshed, Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland‎:

     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 […]

Etymology 4

Noun

swart (plural swarts)

1. (IE dialectal) Variant of swath.

Further reading

• “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, revised edition, volume V, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Straw, straw, warts

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch zwart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

swart (attributive swart, comparative swarter, superlative swartste)

1. black (colour of objects)
2. Black (classification of people)

Antonyms

• wit

German Low German

Alternative forms

• swatt (Münsterland)
• schwart (Paderbornisch)
• swaart (Bremian)

Etymology

From Middle Low German swart, from Old Saxon swart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swart/, /swaːt/, /svaːt/
• IPA^(key): /zwart/, /zwaːt/
• IPA^(key): /swat/, /svat/

Adjective

swart (comparative swärter, superlative swärtst)

1. black

Declension

Gothic

Romanization

swart

1. Romanization of 𐍃𐍅𐌰𐍂𐍄

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch swart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

Adjective

swart

1. black

Inflection

Descendants

• Dutch: zwart
  • Afrikaans: swart
• Limburgish: zwart
• West Flemish: zwort

Further reading

• “swart”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “swart (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

Middle English

Alternative forms

• (Early ME) sweorte, swearte, sweart, swærte
• swarte, suart, suarte, swert, swerte

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swart/, /swɛrt/

Adjective

swart (plural and weak singular swarte, comparative swarter)

1. Dark, oppressive, blackened.
2. Black; swart.
   1. Black-skinned, swarthy; having dark skin.
   2. (rare) Bruised, heavily wounded.
3. (rare) Evil, malign.

Derived terms

• swarten
• swartish
• swartnesse

Descendants

• English: swart, swarth
• Scots: swart

References

• “swart, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-23.

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

Adjective

swart

1. black

Declension

Descendants

• Middle Low German: swart
  • Low German:
    • German Low German: swart, schwart

      Hamburgisch: swatt

      Westphalian:

      Münsterländisch: swatt

      Paderbornisch: schwart

      Lippisch: schwart

      Ravensbergisch: swārt, swat

      Sauerländisch: schwart, schwatt, schwuat, schwoart, schwuart, schwoert

      Westmünsterländisch: schwatt, schwott, schwart

      → German: schwatt

    • Plautdietsch: schwoat
  • → Danish: sværte (“black dye”)

Scots

Etymology 1

From Middle English swart, from Old English sweart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

Noun

swart (plural swarts)

1. Black or dark dyestuff.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse svartr.

Adjective

swart (comparative mair swart, superlative maist swart)

1. Black; swarthy.

Derived terms

• swartback

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian swart, swert, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

Adjective

swart

1. black

Inflection

Further reading

• “swart (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

Noun

swart n (plural swarten)

1. black

See also

Further reading

• “swart (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011