swart

English

Etymology 1

See sward. The 1913 Webster attributes this to Holinshead, but this still needs to be verified.

Noun

swart (uncountable)

1. Obsolete spelling of sward.

Etymology 2

Middle English swart (“dark, black”), from Old English sweart (“black, dark”), from Proto-Germanic *swartaz (“black, dark-coloured”), from Proto-Indo-European *swordo- (“dirty, dark, black”). Cognate with Dutch zwart, Low German swart, German schwarz, Icelandic svartur, Swedish svart, Danish sort, Latin sordes dirt, sordere to be dirty. Compare sordid, surd.

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, The Faerie Queene, Book 2 - A nation strange, with visage swart
   • 1596, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John, III-i - Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious,
   • 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
2. (obsolete) Gloomy; malignant.

Derived terms

• Swart star, (Rare): the Dog Star -- so called from its appearing during the hot weather of summer, which makes swart the countenance.
• swarthy

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To make swart or tawny; as, 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,

References

• swart in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1914

Anagrams

• Straw, straw, warts

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Afrikaans

Etymology

Dutch zwart.

Adjective

swart

1. black

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Gothic

Romanization

swart

1. Romanization of 𐍃𐍅𐌰𐍂𐍄

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Low German

Alternative forms

• svart

Adjective

swart

1. black

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Scots

Etymology 1

From Middle English swarte, from Old English sweart (“black”), from Proto-Germanic *swartaz (“black”). Cognate with Middle Dutch and Middle Low German swart (“black”).

Noun

swart (plural swarts)

1. Black or dark dyestuff.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse svartr (“black”). Cognate with Norwegian svart (“black”).

Adjective

swart (comparative mair swart, superlative maist swart)

1. Black; swarthy.

Derived terms

• swartback

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West Frisian

Noun

swart

1. black