swearing

English

Etymology

From Middle English sweryng; equivalent to swear +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛəɹɪŋ

Verb

swearing

1. present participle and gerund of swear
   • 2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37:

     Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.

Noun

swearing (countable and uncountable, plural swearings)

1. The act of swearing, or making an oath.
   • 1693 (date written), D. F. [pseudonym; Daniel Defoe], An Essay upon Projects, London: […] R. R. for Tho[mas] Cockerill, […], published 1697, →OCLC:

     No man is believed a jot the more for all the asseverations, damnings, and swearings he makes.

Derived terms

• hard swearing
• swearing contest
• swearing-in

 

Translations

the act of making an oath

• Armenian: հայհոյում (hy) (hayhoyum)
• Bulgarian: заклеване n (zaklevane)
• Irish: mallachtach f
• Italian: giuramento (it) m
• Maori: oatitanga

Anagrams

• Wearings, Winegars, Wasinger, resawing, wearings, Wiganers