/swɔː(ɹ)t/, /swɔɹt/
OriginFrom Middle English swart, from Old English sweart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swerd-. Doublet of Schwarz.
- 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”
“A nation strange, with visage swart”
“Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious,”
- UK, dialectalBlack.
- obsoleteGloomy; malignant.
“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!””
- UK, dialectalBlack or dark dyestuff.
- Ireland, alt-of, alternative, dialectalVariant of swath.
- transitiveTo make swart or tawny; blacken; tan.
“to swart a living part”
“[…] the heate of the Sun, whose fervor may swarte a living part, and even black a dead or dissolving flesh,”
Formsswarter(comparative) · swartest(superlative) · swarts(present, singular, third-person) · swarting(participle, present) · swarted(participle, past) · swarted(past) · swarts(plural) · Swarts(plural)